Virginia Wage Laws - Former employee Asking for reprint of checks between 8 months and 2 years old

[jwright63125]

The short of it is this: Employee worked for me from August 2021 through November 2022. Terminated for no-call/no-shows. Employee's mom calls (employee is 19 at this point) and says employee never cashed a single check and I need to reprint them all and mail them to her.

I see Virginia has an escheatment process, but I don't find anything on a VA site that says how to handle unclaimed wages. I also found a VA Code (§ 55.1-2516) that says wages unclaimed for more than 1 year are considered abandoned. This would directly contradict what I read about the escheatment process. I've emailed DOLI, no response after 2 weeks. I've called DOLI direct. You get to a point in their phone tree where they tell you the call volume is too high, leave a message. Three messages left over the past 2 weeks.

Neither my accountant nor my franchise advisor has ever had anything like this happen so they're both clueless on the matter. Anyone have some knowledge to drop?

 

[shabeggeer]

@jwright63125 An employee's mother has no legal standing to ask for anything from you, unless they can provide you with a power of attorney.

Secondly, check your bank accounts to confirm whether the checks were cashed or not.

 

[charlie]

@shabeggeer I never thought about the mother having no power in the request. That's interesting to learn.

 

[shabeggeer]

@charlie Only if the employee is or was a minor, and that is a whole other can of worms.

 

[charlie]

@shabeggeer So it's possible in 2021 they could have been 17, depending on the birth date.

 

[shabeggeer]

@charlie In this situation, it is possible, though I would guess unlikely. I get that feeling.

 

[jahovalbless04]

@jwright63125 did they cash the checks? you should have the transactions and images on your bank website.

if not i don't see the big deal about writing out more checks but only to the ex-employee

 

[mamaweems5]

@jwright63125 “unclaimed for more than 1 year are considered abandoned.”

Not a lawyer or accountant but I’m pretty sure “abandoned” here means ready to be turned over to the state in the escheatment process not finders keepers

 

[jerom]

@mamaweems5 This is how I interpret it as well.

You don't get to just not pay someone who did work, you just aren't responsible for maintaining the liability forever.

 

[honeybee81]

@jwright63125 Ignoring the obvious issues.

Let's say you want to be a good person and pay the wages that were earned.

How do taxes and accounting work here of you write the checks. How were the books balanced 2 years ago when there was extra money in the account.

 

[jwright63125]

@honeybee81 I got a callback from DOLI about an hour after I posted (2 weeks of nothing, then as soon as I whine on Reddit...). My impulse is to contact the employee and pay in a single check. According to DOLI, this would constitute a pay irregularity that can open me to a complaint and potential fines. Their position is once the checks expire there is no basis for a complaint. So the official Commonwealth of Virginia logic is making an employee whole opens me to penalties.

As far as the accounting goes (this is my layman's understanding of what the accountant told me), payroll is charged to a liabilities account. With 30+ employees, there are always outstanding liabilities. I've put in place a tracking system now where they will flag any check not cashed after 60 days so I can pester the employee to get it done. Will likely transition to a direct deposit payroll to avoid this happening again in the next few months.