Bouncing paychecks blindside some workers
By Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY
usatoday.com
As the economy struggles and more companies collapse, some employees are finding their employers can't afford to pay them.
The paycheck woes are coming because many companies are struggling to hold on: About 160 publicly traded companies have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization this year, according to BankruptcyData.com. Employees are staging walkouts over bounced paychecks and unexpectedly finding themselves unable to pay rent and bills.
"I was so mad and felt betrayed," says Laurie Skinner, 31, a sales and marketing employee in Centerville, Ohio. Her bank told her it couldn't cash a former employer's check because there wasn't enough money to cover it. "All I knew was that my mortgage was due, my car payments were due. I was wondering, 'Will I have money for groceries?' "
Other examples:
Teachers in the West Fresno, Calif., School District stayed home for several days this month after they didn't get paid. Parents picketed and carried signs demanding that the instructors be paid. Teachers worried about how to buy food and make house payments.
"Almost all teachers stayed home," says Becky Zoglman, a spokeswoman for the California Teachers Association. State officials vowed to take over the financially troubled district and that teachers would be paid for October.
More than 140 employees at Highlanders Alloys, a metals production company in New Haven, W.Va., walked off the job in June after paychecks bounced, union officials say. The strike lasted nearly three weeks.
The company has made up for the unpaid checks and agreed to a contract with guaranteed wages.
"We've had some complications here and there, like every company," owner Boris Bannai says. "But we're making all efforts, and employees will have long-term jobs."
Thousands of health care workers' checks bounced in October because National Century Financial Enterprises in Dublin, Ohio, a company that expedites insurance payments for hospitals and physician groups, missed payments it makes to health care providers. "We're working very hard to resolve issues," says National spokesman Jim Nickell.
For some companies, the bounced checks can be a last gasp for survival. Working at a company in Los Angeles, Melanie Terrell was given her paychecks but told not to cash them until later because they'd bounce. The company would take money from clients and rush it to the bank so that paychecks could be handed out.
"It was a company living paycheck to paycheck," says Terrell, 41, who was laid off and now works as a consultant for a direct-marketing firm in San Francisco. Her former employer, she says, went out of business. "I thought, 'If you can't pay me, how long are you going to be around anyway?' " |
