r/LaborLaw

I was recently laid off from a remote position at a large, multibillion-dollar company. They sent me supplies to return my equipment, but the box was too small, and they didn’t include shipping tape.

I contacted IT requesting a larger box, shipping tape, and a UPS pickup since bringing everything to a UPS location isn’t feasible. They agreed to arrange a pickup and provide another shipping label for a larger item that I still have the original box for, but said they don’t supply tape.

There were also two HDMI cables on the return list that stopped working shortly after I received them, so I discarded them. IT told me to return what I have, and HR confirmed that equipment returns are independent of my severance payout, although my separation agreement vaguely states that company property must be returned promptly.

Here’s where I’m frustrated. From what I’ve read online, UPS drivers aren’t expected to carry shipping tape with them or tape up packages during scheduled pickups. So if the driver arrives without tape, I would have no way to properly seal the boxes.

This is especially frustrating because the company also denied my request for two additional months of health insurance coverage, despite my explaining that I was hired shortly after major surgery (which my managers knew about) and have ongoing medical needs. Now I’m facing expensive COBRA coverage for the remainder of the year.

I realize shipping tape isn’t expensive, but it’s the principle of the matter. After an involuntary layoff, I don’t think I should have to spend my own money returning company equipment, especially when we’re talking about a multibillion-dollar corporation.

Would it be reasonable to insist they provide shipping tape or arrange another solution? Or am I making too big a deal out of this?

I’m planning to undergo a salpingectomy and will need to take a couple of weeks off work for recovery.

I’m at one of those places that loves to boast “unlimited PTO” when you apply for a job but makes you feel guilty every time you make a request.

Since I don’t technically have any time off accrued (aside from my sick pay) - am I able to legally hold them that that claim so I can be paid for those two weeks I’m out?

Does anyone have experience with this?

Basically to sum it up, my union was recently on strike. We were forced back to work without an agreement, which sucks, and after a few days of returning to work we noticed a camera hidden on the top shelf in our small “parts warehouse”. We searched the unit up online, and it’s a trail cam capable of recording video and audio without a cellular connection. There are no signs posted saying that we are being recorded. Does my employer have a legal right to secretly record in their office? Located in New Brunswick.

[supprimé]

long paragraphs, apologies!

i’ve worked as a server for a family owned restaurant for about 2 months. every single day i clock in i feel like something is always happening, and not in a good way. i’m the newest employee there and i’ve already been frequently tasked with opening the restaurant entirely by myself. i either have no customers or 5+ parties at a time. i’m usually given my hours for the next day at 11pm the day before, i’m not automatically given 30 minute breaks for 7+ hour shifts, and when i do i feel rushed/have to end it early because a bunch of people come in. i’ve been chastised for sitting down when i need to. i worked an 8 hour shift yesterday entirely on my feet with no breaks because i was the only one working in the place aside from the cooks; and had more than 8 tables at the same time.

the boss of the restaurant has insinuated that i’ve done sketch things. more recently, a coworker and i had separate shifts and one of us miscounted the register. the boss pulled us both aside and called us out in front of customers, and said we both would have to take a cut from our paychecks to make up the loss. just today, i came into work and the boss took up one of the blenders, insinuated that i broke it due to the fact she saw me make several drinks and warned me about the blender breaking, and said i would need to pay for it. in general, she does not communicate with me; she does not reply to my messages or calls, and always comes to talk to me in-person when she’s upset, right before i’m about to leave to catch the bus (well after i clock out), or when i come to collect my paycheck, which is often because she never remembers to pay it on time.

while sending out the schedule the day before is legal in my state; the rare breaks, late paychecks, and taking out money from my check for register error/equipment are all illegal. on top of that, i’m fortunate enough to be from a state that requires employers to compensate the difference for service workers if the hourly wage + tips does not meet the state minimum wage requirement. however, she does not do that and i end up coming home well below what i need to pay the bills. i want to report this to someone, but feel hesitant because 1.) she NEVER puts anything in writing and holds me accountable for remembering things, even meetings and different consequences, and 2.) i know this is probably dumb, but i’m unsure of the legal status of some of my coworkers. the majority of the establishment is latino, including myself; but due to the political climate, i don’t want to cause a governmental issue of this caliber, especially knowing that it has a decent chance to escalate and that i have no written proof of anything.

i like my coworkers, i like the family that runs it; the food is good; but i can’t keep living like this. i don’t know what to do and would appreciate some advice about how to go forward if there is any besides just finding a new job.

TLDR: i’m a server not allotted proper breaks and get chastised for a lot of various things. my boss does not communicate and has accused me of breaking equipment and takes money out of my paychecks to compensate them; and does not give paychecks on time. i want to report but i don’t know if i even should due to having no written documentation and the fact that i don’t know the legal status of some of my coworkers. seeking advice on how to proceed.

location: California, USA

Company HQ is in California, USA. My location as a remote employee is Maryland, USA where I reside. My own mileage expenses were incurred in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington DC, USA. Other employees' mileage expenses would have been across most of the states in the US, though I don't have an exhaustive list and can't assume it's all 50 states.

Using a throwaway account as I'm worried about retaliation.

I recently discovered that my employer has been inaccurately under-reimbursing all employees who created expense reports for personal vehicle mileage in the United States. My questions: how can I maximize my employer's accountability for this error while minimizing my own risk of retaliation? How much of the missing money can I get back -- from anyone?

The situation:

My employer, a publicly traded company, forgot to update the US mileage reimbursement in our software tool we use to create expense reports. The rate was accurate as of December 31, 2024. The IRS raised the reimbursement rate for mileage on January 1st 2025, then again on January 1st 2026, and once more on July 1st 2026. None of those changes to the rate were ever reflected in our expense tool.

I noticed this in September 2026 and reported it to our Accounts Payable (AP) organization. They corrected the reimbursement rate in the software the day I reported this.

When I asked the AP rep on my trouble ticket if the company would be assisting affected employees who wanted to recoup their missing reimbursements or if the company would be making an announcement of the error, I was told no. When I asked if this under-reimbursement was in error I was told no again -- the AP rep said that the company is not legally bound to reimburse for US mileage. By the letter of the law, that seems to be correct in my amateur analysis.

Here's the rub. The company's documented Travel and Expense policy for the US says that the company will reimburse mileage at "the tax authority rate" which in the US would be the IRS rate. This policy language was documented in effect before, during, and after the under-reimbursement.

When I asked the AP rep how we let this go on for ~21 months, she said that the company reviews the reimbursement rates on an annual basis, and the company chose not to increase the reimbursement rate to coincide with the IRS changes. I frankly don't believe this at all, I think it was a mistake and the rep doesn't want to admit fault on the part of the company. Apparently the rep telling me that the company intentionally and silently under-reimbursed all US mileage for that time is preferable to telling me that the company made a mistake. I see it differently, but maybe that's why I'm just a worker bee.

Here's an even bigger rub. Normally a senior manager/director would grant approval to change the reimbursement rate in the expense software. On the day I made my report, that person was out and their delegate had to approve the change. Who was the delegate? The company's Chief Accounting Officer, a person who reports to the CFO. This means that the CAO is aware of the company's under-reimbursement going back to January 1st 2025. This timeline was explicitly discussed in the ticket and the CAO was copied on all of the ticket correspondence. Their silence on the matter is implicit approval of these actions from what I can see.

I've shared this discovery with enough other employees that if and when the company faces consequences for this error the company will suspect it started with me. The money I'm missing is probably around $100 or less, so I'm not motivated by some windfall, I really just want everyone to be made whole because it's the right thing to do. Others who do more driving are unlikely to exceed $200 in missing reimbursements. My company is large enough that paying the money won't be the worst outcome for them, instead it will be the damage to the company's reputation and trustworthiness in the eyes of the employees.

I let my manager know about this, and he escalated to the next manager. That person referred the matter to HR, who then essentially did nothing and has communicated nothing to the effect of "we're going to make this right" or even "we are investigating." The whole thing has become hush-hush.

What are my options for making the company pay the employees what the company's policy says they should have paid, if they are even required? I don't have the appetite to take them to court, but am wondering what other avenues this sub recommends.

I’ve worked with this employer for almost 4 years now, and for the past two years there have been a lot of updates and changes to the company. One of the changes states that if we are tardy three times that we will be deducted a day of unpaid leave. This is a part-time job, and most days are 3 1/2 hours to four hours long. Is that legal?

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Hi there,

I know someone close to me whom is working as a server/waitress in Alberta, she has been employed with the franchise for over a month now working part time hours.

In her off time she is required to complete franchise required work courses; unpaid.

She informed me that if the required courses are not completed then they will begin deducting tips and cutting shifts, as it has already happened to some of the other staff.

It is under my impression that this should all be paid time legally?

She brought it up to her manager and was told they would look into it, but I am certain it will get brushed off.

Has anyone else been in this situation before, I think she should bring it up with the labour board.

In my experience and from my research the franchise is legally required to pay anytime for work or requried work courses unless they were a requirement for employment or courses that a worker would take on their own to improve their career etc.

I (18F) recently got my first job at a popular phone company based in Texas. I worked 12 hours and didn’t clock out the way they like us to (they track us on an app and we have to tap to clock out, I didn’t tap but still officially clocked out ). I didn’t realize they didn’t realize HR denied my hours until the paycheck hit my account and it was around $150 less than usual. And so I sent a formal email to the HR department with evidence of my worked hours and on 9/25/2026 they said they’ll send me my wages in a check. Now it is 10/10/2026. In Ohio, where I live, it is illegal to hold wages past the next payday, which was 2 days ago. My attempts to communicate with HR are being ignored. This being my first job I don’t know what to do. Any and all advice is welcome.

I’m honestly getting pretty annoyed with my job and I’m wondering if I’m overreacting.

I started working at a small grocery store and I’ve been training for 2 weeks, Monday–Friday, about 4 hours a day. One of their main requirements was that I memorize all the PLU codes, which I’ve actually have memorized all of the commons one. I understand wanting me to learn the codes, but they literally have the codes programmed into the register and they also have charts with the codes available.

Today I was talking to my manager and she told me I’ll be training for another week, which would make this my third week of training as a cashier. I’m kind of confused because it’s a small grocery store and, at the end of the day, it’s a $17/hour cashier job. It’s not like I’m training for something extremely complicated.

What really annoyed me, though, is that they also cut me from Friday, so now I’m losing another day of pay.

On top of that, I realized I still hadn’t received my paycheck. I’ve been working for almost two weeks without getting paid, and my manager never mentioned anything about it until I had to blunt it out . I actually had to ask her, “Am I not getting paid this week?”

I feel like I shouldn’t have had to ask in that way but I just got really annoyed . If you didn’t want me to come in the actual payday, shouldn’t my paycheck have been given to me or at least communicated to me? Especially when I’m only making $17/hour and obviously can’t afford to go three weeks without getting paid.

Apparently, since they don’t want me working tomorrow, I have to come back just to pick up my money the next day.

Maybe I’m just frustrated because everything is taking so long. I’ve been showing up consistently, memorized what they asked me to memorize, and I’m still being kept in training while also losing hours making no money.

Am I being unreasonable for being annoyed about this, especially having to ask about my own paycheck?

Throwaway account.

Facts as neutrally as I can put them:
•. Worked through a consulting/staffing company in California for several years, ending earlier this year. On H-1B throughout.
• Pay structure: W-2 payroll ran at the required wage, and the rest of my agreed share of the client bill rate accrued as a running "balance" to be settled later.
• Earlier this year, someone on their finance side sent me their own reconciliation spreadsheet. It puts the balance owed to me in the low five figures.
• They have acknowledged owing it in writing several times. A large share of the deductions on their own sheet are "legal fees" with no invoices ever provided. If those came off, the amount owed roughly doubles.
• Their sheet also shows a significant block of hours worked with regular pay recorded as zero.

Questions:
1. Is a DLSE wage claim the right route here, or does the contract element argue for a civil suit instead?
2. Are charges and unexplained legal fees lawful deductions from wages in California or even on a federal level?
3. The company appears to have no cash. Does that change the strategy, or create any urgency about filing?
If attorney recommendations are allowed here, I am in California and looking.

Location: Texas

I’m an hourly/non-exempt employee in Texas and I’m trying to figure out how I should handle a pretty significant unpaid overtime situation.

Starting around December 2024, I regularly worked outside my scheduled hours and sometimes through unpaid lunches because of my workload. This was actual work — emails, documentation, reviewing files, making decisions, setting things up for customers, etc.

Recently my employer audited my activity and showed me a report containing system activity outside my scheduled hours. So they apparently have electronic records showing when I was working.

After the issue came up, my supervisor started entering historical overtime, but only went back to around July 25, 2026. I reviewed what they entered and found that some of the time appears to have been entered incorrectly. One discrepancy I identified effectively reduced the time worked by about 50%. I brought that up.

Today I had a meeting with my supervisor and his boss. They asked why I worked the extra hours, why I thought it was okay, etc. I told them the truth: I did not personally keep a detailed log of every minute I worked over the last almost two years, so I can’t accurately recreate every day from memory.

They know that.

But they also have the system audit/activity records showing when I was working.

After the meeting they sent me an Excel spreadsheet and told me to fill in the overtime/time that I believe I worked.
That’s where I’m uncomfortable. I don’t want to guess and accidentally overstate anything, but I also don’t want to substantially understate the hours I actually worked simply because I don’t personally have access to the company’s historical system records.

I’ve now requested the audit/activity report they previously showed me so that I can use their own records to accurately complete the spreadsheet.

I’m planning to speak with an employment/FLSA attorney because the unpaid work goes back to approximately December 2024, not just July 2026.

My questions:

1. Has anyone dealt with an employer asking YOU to reconstruct years of hours when the employer has electronic records that could establish when you were working?

2. Should I avoid estimating anything on this spreadsheet until I’ve talked to an attorney?

3. If they refuse to give me the audit/system records, can an employment attorney obtain those records through discovery/subpoena if litigation becomes necessary?

4. For anyone who has pursued an FLSA unpaid-overtime case, what records ended up being the most useful — system login/activity records, email timestamps, claim/file activity, Teams activity, etc.?

5. Is there anything I should be doing right now to preserve evidence while I’m still employed?

I’m not trying to claim time I didn’t work. My entire concern is basically the opposite — I want whatever I submit to accurately reflect the work I actually performed rather than making up numbers from memory.

My employer is a vendor for a larger organization’s afterschool programs. The larger organization has requested that I fill out several forms and trainings in order to work their afterschool programs, including one form in particular that requires a medical professional’s signature. A health care provider must sign a few things that attest that I am in good shape to work with children, and I must also get a TB test.

When the organization requested this form, I asked my boss who pays for the medical exam/TB test, and she said that it’s my responsibility. I need to fill out the form in order to do the work, but I don’t feel like it is legal for me to have to pay for these medical costs, as it is required for work. My boss keeps telling me “maybe the doctor will give you a discount because you’ve already gotten a physical this year” or “maybe you can get it cheaper if you just pay in cash or something,” which confuses me because I don’t know what kind of doctor would be happy to give out discounts. It is also important to note that I am an hourly employee and do not have insurance under my employer.

Am I right in thinking that it is not legal for me to be required to pay for this? Furthermore, if it is someone else’s responsibility to pay, would it be the responsibility of the larger organization or my direct employer?

Location: New York City

I interviewed for another job earlier this week, and before I even had a chance to decide how I was going to handle the situation, the interviewer told my current manager the whole story. We live in a small town, so apparently they know each other and talked about it over lunch.

My manager pulled me aside the next day and told me she knew I was leaving. She repeated several things I had said in the interview almost word for word, including that I was planning to give two weeks' notice. It felt extremely invasive and upsetting to hear things from a private conversation repeated back to me at work.

During the interview, I made it clear that I wanted to speak to my manager myself if I accepted the offer. But instead, this woman took it upon herself to tell her everything before I even had the chance to talk to her.

I'm so upset that I'm considering turning down the offer. If they share interview details this casually before I've even started, I don't know what working there would be like. Would this be enough reason for you to turn it down and walk away?

Hi, I have just been laid off 1 month before I’m due to give birth (in Colorado/salary exempt) and I am very stressed and have a lot of questions on what to do next.

The company is not offering me severance pay after 2.5 years there. From the letter they sent, my medical plan will continue to be in effect until the end of October, but I am not sure if I am paying for it. The company is offering reimbursement for COBRA for the month of November. I have met my deductible for my insurance, but I’m not sure about how much COBRA will cost since no information has been provided yet.

I plan on reaching out to the company and asking some of the questions above, but I’m not sure if that’s recommended or if legal advice is the best route?

Has anyone been through this or have advice on steps to take? TIA!

Hello! I have a reoccurring issue (1 of thousands) with my SM. She does not log my hours correctly, no matter how many times I remind/ask. It started with paid classes, transportation, reimbursements, and now straight up just my hours lol. She is not very proactive and doesn’t know what she is doing, she’s very young. How do I get this to change? Hr? Do I talk to my ACO? Thank you

Location: Utah
I am a W2 employee at a renovation company that I have been with for about 6 months. I am supposed to get paid biweekly. When I started I gave them my information for direct deposit, but my first check came in physical format. The company has been experiencing financial issues to the point of doing anything to avoid bankruptcy ever since I started. I have been receiving paper checks this whole time. There was one occurrence in which mine and my coworker’s checks bounced, but they fixed that a couple days later. The past couple of paydays there has been a significant amount of money missing. Ten business days ago (one pay period for me) they deleted two whole days that I worked off of the time sheet. I brought up the issue and no action has been taken. I looked up my rights in the state of Utah, which states I can refuse to work until I get paid. I haven’t worked in over a week with no word about getting compensated. Today I reached out to check up on this issue and whether or not I can expect to get paid tomorrow. I still haven’t heard anything, which is normal for them. I rarely get a response from management when it’s about a serious concern. It’s also worth noting that they owe me over $1000 for gas used to get to the job sites. I use my personal vehicle when they promised me a company van. Since they can’t provide me with one, they promised me reimbursement on gas. A portion of the reimbursement they owe me is also from materials I had to purchase myself to get a job done. I’m not the only employee that is owed a significant amount for reimbursements.

I would like to take legal action against them, but I need to know my rights in Utah as well as what kind of proof I would need to provide in a case.