Last week, the United States signed into effect the largest stimulus package this nation has ever seen in an effort to help reduce the financial strain on the American public as well as the economy that’s resulted from the massive outbreak of coronavirus that’s effectively shut down the nation as we know it — but it wasn’t without a lot of back and forth between desperate Democrats and greedy GOPers.
In the end, both parties were forced to do a little compromising and ultimately reached an agreement that would give multiple big companies the break of their lives while still delivering $1200 checks to every American over the age of 18.
But now, after all that trouble gone through to get where we are regarding some economic relief, it seems that one company in Texas wants to continue in the Republican vein of making sure they have more going for them than their employees do.
According to a report from KXAN, a local news station in Austin, Texas, one company (name unknown) in the popular Texas town is now looking for a way to deduct the impending stimulus check from their employees’ paychecks.
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“The form says they are preemptively deducting funds from our paychecks. That number is based on what they’re anticipating the government relief fund to be,” one worker who asked to remain anonymous so as not to affect the company’s ability to conduct business told the local news station.
The employee went on to reveal that several staffers received an email from the company titled, “Employee Acknowledgement of ‘Government Assistance’ Pay Reduction.”
The email went on to state, “In response to the economic crisis that is affecting all of us due to the coronavirus pandemic…(company name redacted) are hereby enacting the Employee Emergency Compensation Fund.”
The agreement would reportedly put company employees under a “temporary compensation reduction that is in line with the assistance that it receives from the federal government related to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
If the worker signs the agreement, they would have their pay for the period between April 6 and April 20 cut by 100 percent of the amount of the upcoming stimulus check. The agreement would also allow the company to take half of the $500 check allocated for dependents within each family.
According to the worker who spoke with KXAN, the company laid off a quarter of its employees this week and the anonymous staffer feels that this is their effort to meet payroll.
“The company that I work for is a national company and they make hundreds of millions of dollars in profit a year and instead of making sacrifices at the higher levels, they’re passing it on down to everybody else,” the employee stated.
Austin Kaplan, a labor attorney is Austin explains, “From a legal standpoint, in Texas, the law isn’t as strong in employee rights as I would like it to be, but there is a federal law called the ‘Fair Labor Standards Act. That law says that employees have to get at least minimum wage from the employer during their regular pay period.”
The company went on to clarify in the email that this pay cut would be effective through the remainder of stimulus checks, should the government approve additional bills in the coming days, writing, “The deduction will happen as many times as the government decides to make these types of distributions.”
“I would much rather sit in the unemployment line and be proud of my decision to leave a company that’s making these kinds of requests or demands, than hate myself for going along with it because I don’t agree with it,” the anonymous employee concluded.
You can read the full report here.
Featured image via Political Tribune gallery
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