Employees being abused by their employer!?
I work at a small optometrist's office with one doctor and five other employees. My employer allows his employees to use the internet during all breaks. The comp. now has a virus and he is purchasing a new comp. due to damages. He is blaming the employees even though he uses the internet too. He is divided the cost of the comp. among his employees and he is witholding that amt from our checks. He said that we went against company policy by using the internet during office hours, but none of us have ever seen the company policy. Is there anything we can do to prevent these actions from taking place? His actions are unprofessional and in my mind are also illegal.HELP!
Answers:
Here is an idea, take the computer to someone and have the virus removed. It would be much cheaper. Then put a good anti virus on it. As to the rest, I am not aware that it is illegal.
As for employer abuse, i've seen MUCH worse.
As for that, you do need to see a copy of your company policy, if your boss is trying to base his claim on that. It's not fair to charge everyone for a computer, without basis of who caused the damages.
It's illegal (not to mention really shady) for him to deduct anything from your paycheck unless a) you authorize it or b) it is spelled out clearly in your company policies or employee handbooks, including why, how, and how much.
If he's running a legitimate business, his repairs to the computers used for that business might be tax-deductible, but at the very least, they are a normal cost of doing business. (He really doesn't need to replace the whole thing due to viruses, either, but I guess that's another issue.)
You shouldn't be expected to pay for any of his equipment that breaks or malfunctions. What's next? Is he going to charge you for over-using a diagnostic machine on a patient?
Call your local employment or labor board.
i'd pay the price if i liked my job, but after that i would tell him that i want a paper signed showing him i didnt want to use his computers for anything but work related things. i am sure he would get the point and not mess with me again.
If everyone used the computer for personal use then those people should step up to the plate and either fix this one or buy another one. If that happened to me and I never used the computer for personal use then I would take him aside and tell him that I never use the computer for personal use and refuse to pay for something I had no involvement in.
It really has nothing to do with company policy. Just ethical behavior. If you want to take it to a legal level then I believe unless he has a written policy in place that was enforced according to his awareness then he is stuck paying for the computer. He can't deduct anything from your paychecks.
A virus does not damage a computer to the point it needs to be replaced. At worst, the doc is going to have to pay someone (like the Geek Squad) to fix the problem. But that's nowhere near as expensive as buying a computer.
Seems like he's taking advantage.
As to the legal aspects: they should ask for written copy of the company policy. They should ask for a copy of where they signed that they'd received the policy.
The answers post by the user, for information only, FreeLawAnswer.com does not guarantee the right.
Answer question:
More Law Questions and Answers: