(03-29-2020, 10:11 AM)mal234 Wrote: Here is something that some people may have to be leery of regarding the stimulus checks and their employers. Apparently some companies like one in Austin Texas, are trying to take the stimulus payments (including the full amount per individual) as well as half of the dependent payment from their employees. A company in Austin is trying to do this and has sent out a form asking their employees to sign it giving them permission to take this amount from their paychecks.

They sent out a form that they titled the “Employee Acknowledgement of ‘Government Assistance’ Pay Reduction" form, where they are asking employees to sign it and have their paychecks between the weeks of April 6-20th be reduced by 100% of their stimulus amount, plus 50% per dependent amount. An employee who spoke under anonymity stated that this company is a national company that makes hundreds of millions of dollars. He also mentioned they laid off a quarter of their workforce recently. He stated he believed they did the layoffs to try and reduce their payroll. And now they are trying to do this stuff with the stimulus check. Another employee from a company in Texas mentioned their company was doing something similar.

Hopefully, no one here has an employer that is trying to pull something like this. (And it sounds like this may be illegal). But it is something to be mindful of, while people are waiting on their stimulus checks, and we are dealing with the hard impact the virus is putting on the economy.

Here is a link to this article:

https://wgno.com/news/health/coronavirus...hecks-tmw/

I have heard similar stories like this from people that I know.  I have mixed feelings about this.

On one hand if employees are still currently receiving their full pay then they don't necessarily need the stimulus check.  They are not losing any income.

With that being said on the other hand, this money doesn't come from the company it comes from those of us that actually pay taxes.  It's really no business for a company to dock a person's pay because they received a "gift" or otherwise.  Besides that it defeats the purpose which is to put the money into the hands of the people, not give additional aide to business.

On a similar note I know of at least one case where my [BLEEP] company placed someone under mandatory quarantine for 2 weeks (the person had been out of country).  The employee was given the option of using sick time, vacation time or leave-without-pay.  It's just my opinion but I think the company should at least pay the person since they have been told to stay home through no fault of their own, and the company is already getting paid for the employee from the government whether he/she is actually at work.

I'm fortunate enough that even though I self-quarantined I am still able to perform much of my duties from home so I still get paid.

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