Malice Part II The Unsigned Paycheck, check your check for a signature Options

[Peter Everhard]

I thought in the ten years or so that I have been temping, that I had seen every form of malice possible by a temp agency against people temping. But today, I was just introduced to a whole new level of malice, the unsigned, four day old paycheck.

Obviously, no one is going to cash a check with no authorized signature. But, apparently, just to make sure that if some check cashing place DIDN'T notice that the check had no authorized signature, the check this temp agency gave me was dated FOUR days before they gave it to me. Most check cashing places will not cash a payroll check more than three days old.

I picked up this paycheck the temp agency. I checked the amount to make sure it was correct but it never occurred to me to check to see if the check had an authorized signature. When I went to cash the check, the check cashing place noticed that the check was dated FOUR days before and that the check had no authorized signature, doublely guaranteeing that it would be impossible for me to cash the check.

I am in on going shock over the level of HATE some people in the Staffing Business have against people temping. I don't get it? If you HATE people temping, why work for a temp agency?

In addition to one temp agency giving me an unsigned check yesterday, another temp agency cheated me out of $5.00 by paying me the day rate for the one hour that I worked into second shift. I have been working for this temp agency since 1993. This particular temp agency once reported to unemployment that I had QUIT (in relation to a partial UI claim that I made a couple of weeks earlier) when I was ON a temp assignment working for the agency. I was working for the agency on a temp assignment and yet someone at the temp agency felt the NEED to do me harm by telling unemployment that I had quit (and that I was therefore not eligible for a partial UI claim and that I should be disqualfied from claiming UI in the future).

BAD CHECKS AND NO CHECKS

The reality is that in New York City, a temp agency (or any other company for that matter) CAN get away with just not paying you. Every company knows that even if you can prove that you worked and weren't paid, that there is always the chance that the Judge that will hate you so much that he/she will rule against you (even though you are the victim). Believe me, in New York City you CAN lose a lawsuit for pay when you can prove that you worked and weren't paid. Judges don't get sent to jail if they decide not to obey the law; Judges are free to act out of malice with immunity.

frankly, I don't see any Judge in New York City ordering any company to pay someone Black. I've been in court, I've seen the judges in small claims court and, again, I don't see any of them ruling in favor of someone Black who wasn't paid by an employer. I can see a judge asking someone Black suing for non-payment about their educational backgrounds and qualifications in order to justify ruling against them. The only way that I would believe that a judge in New York City ruled that someone Black was qualified for something is if I you could show me the actual order stating so.

Most companies can rely on the fact that you might actually lose a lawsuit if you sue them (for your pay) or that if you file a complaint with the Department of Labor, that it could take months for the Department of Labor to order to company to pay you.

Last time I filed a complaint with the Department of Labor for non-payment, this ahole mutherfahker at the Department of Labor did nothing with my complaint for 6 months. When I went in to ask about the complaint, the idiot useless fahker said that I had not put a certain date on the form. So, I asked the ahole: "Were you planning to contact me or were you just going to stare at the form for a year?" This same useless fahker will probably get YOUR complaint if you file a complaint with the Department of Labor. The ahole would rather just stare at the stacks of complaints on his desk than actually do any fahking work.

The only thing in favor of us temping actually getting paid is that the law holds that if your employer doesn't pay you, you can sue the person who benefitted from your labor, in other words, if the temp agency doesn't pay you, you can sue the temp agency's client. And, trust me, if you even HINT that you are going to sue a temp agency's client, your check will probably be hand delivered to you within hours (either that or that temp agency will be out of one client).

This all brings me to another reason for a temp agency actually giving me a FOUR day old unsigned check. The temp agency probably knew that they didn't have enough money in the bank to cover the check; they were trying to buy some time, hoping that some client would pay a bill that would allow them to make payroll.

As I understand it, while NOT paying people is a freeby (for a while anyway), it may be a criminal offense when a temp agency gives you a check that it knows it doesn't have the money to cover.