Making Gas Station Employee Pay For Drive-Off

[StephTagen]

I did not know where to put this, but i work at a gast station in arkansas and i was wandering can they make me pay for a driveoff? and also can they make me pay the differnce if my drawer comes up short? any help would be very helpful

[Fxston]

Generally, an employer can hold you responsible for any deliberate act, but not one of negligence or incompetence. Generally speaking, the answer to your two questions is "no."

[Mr. Knowitall]

If by "wandering" you mean you were away from your designated post and as a result a driver was able to achieve a drive-away, there's certainly negligence there.

Many gas stations have the type of policy you describe, and many retail operations require cashiers to make up discrepancies in their register drawers. (I'm still looking for an employer which balances such a policy by giving employees a credit when the drawer is over, but it's probably a futile quest.) It's a matter of contract - that is, you contractually agree that you will make up such shortages as a condition of your employment. They typically cannot deduct any such losses from a paycheck without express permission.

So the big question probably is, does your employer have policies on this type of shortage, or is this something that they just made up after-the-fact and applied to you?

[StephTagen]

we were told we had to make up for lost ciggs,gas, and drawer, i dont agree with it,if we dont pay first time we get written up 3rd time we get fired,