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Each week our boss gives us payslips with our hours worked and we can cash them right at the place of work. Pretty simple. You get a receipt for your hours worked for the week and a slip to turn into the cash register for payment. If a worker needs a regular "paycheck" instead of cash, that is also arranged. Or if they want their money auto-deposited, that is another option available.

So, we have this one waitress that has worked there for 7 years. She comes in the other day with some of these "payslips" that are almost three years old. She said she found them in an old purse in her closet. She never cashed them in. Now she wants me to bring them into the office to see if they are any good.

How is this situation handled? The amount of all the slips is almost $300.00.

Chris W. Rea
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Diana
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5 Answers5

188

You (or whoever is responsible for that) look into the old books to see if the payslips were paid out. There should also be a folder with old payslips where the ones in question should be missing.

After that, the person in charge of cashing them in can safely do so.

If there is no such thing, you(r manager) should cash in the slips as the price for an important lesson, start doing normal bookkeeping and be happy the business has survived for so long. No business should be giving out thousands of dollars over years to employees without any proof of where that money went or even how much money went out.

DonQuiKong
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70

Talk to the owner or the manager. You don't want to be responsible for paying money for a payslip that already has been paid.

As you have noted this is highly unusual for somebody to hold onto these payslips. While it looks like they were never paid there might be some other story. Maybe they were lost and the restaurant replaced them, and they will no longer honor the original ones.

Don't pay any money until somebody with additional authority has approved them and takes responsibility for the situation.

mhoran_psprep
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14

Now she wants me to bring them into the office to see if they are any good.

Why are you invovled?
Why isn't she coming to the office?

How is this situation handled?

Give them back to her and let her bring them in.

Explain that you aren't authorized to cash anything except the ones that you hand out weekly, and let her take it up with someone senior to you (or someone like an accountant who can research this).

J. Chris Compton
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7

If the payslips are genuine, and if you're confident there is no scam going on, then you should pay. To be safe, you should check with your manager first.

JoeTaxpayer
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gnasher729
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-7

Be aware that depending on which US state you are in, it is quite possible that these payslips are no longer valid, even if they are genuine.

It also matters whether the waitress has a written work contract. Depending on these parameters, the corresponding statue of limitations may say anything from "1 year" to "20 years".

So, in addition to making sure that the payslips are genuine, and in addition to cross-checking the books for a double charge-in, you should first of all be sure the period of limitation for your specific scenario hasn't passed (this is faster and easier to do than checking the books, if you're lucky you need not do that, after all).

Failure to do so may end with you having to explain to your manager, and probably refunding the money, if this goes the wrong way.

Damon
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