Pay Still Owed After Termination

My summary is long but try to keep this short as much as possible. I'll start off from January 2012. Myself and my employer are in oath court regarding my calling out from the job without official leave. We come to an agreement that I am to serve a year probation and a 30 day suspension and I am allowed 3 latenesses but told if I'm absent without official leave I will be terminated. After my court date I go to work and put in for days off using my leave times, I am told by the site commander at the time that he doesn't care how much time I had (which was a lot) and that he wasn't approving any time I put in and that I wanted time off I wasn't getting it. I am put on suspension as per the oath court agreement in late august 2012 to September 2012 between January 2012 and august 2012 I was absent without leave almost 20 times. When I return from suspension in September I try to clock in but I can't and time and overtime that I worked before suspension was never paid. So I approach the new site commander that I'll call Cee, and advise him that I can't login and that time that I have worked still hasn't been paid to me. Cee tells me that he will straighten everything out and I'll be paid by the next pay period which was 10/10/2012. The date comes when I am to be paid and I am not I have no money to get to work which is 20 miles away and I call out giving lack of funds as the reason. When I come into work the next day after borrowing money from friends I am called into Cee's office he hands me a recertification notice and a notice to renew my fire guard for the following week. I tell Cee that I have almost no money and ask him to approve my time so I can go to headquarters and pick up money that is owed to me, Cee refuses and tells me I don't deserve to be paid. I write an email and handwritten note to Cee's supervisors. Two days after I come into work and Cee calls me into his office he asks me if I wrote a complaint about him I tell him yes he tells me that his supervisors didn't care and hands me a notice of termination with no official date of termination, I ask him when my last day will be he tells me sometime in November, he then tells me he doesn't want snitches at his command and I'm put at different commands for 3 days straight the 4th day 10/21/2012 I'm allowed to work at my site. 2 hours before my shift ends I am called into the office by my supervisor and told to hand in my equipment and that it will be my last day. I advise my supervisor that I had not received an letter and was told I would be terminated in November he tells me he can't do anything about it, I hand in equipment and leave. I receive a direct deposit of $860 on 10/24/2012. In early November 2012 I finally receive my termination letter it states that I am to be paid whatever is owed to be which is over $10,000 which was on 10/24. I contact payroll they give me the run around and lie and tell me that it will take until 12/21/2012 for the money to get to me. When I finally get the check it is January 2013 and was almost lost in the mail. The total was $9,200 but $1,300 was taken out with no explanation and it includes pay from August 2012 which I complained to Cee. Money is obviously short. I contact payroll and ask for an explanation as to why $1300 was taken out and request my time sheets and the pay dates. Payroll tells me I will be getting anything and ignores me. So I contact my sorry ass union rep and tell him the situation. Basically he drags my case and tries to avoid me on September 26, 2013 I receive a surprise direct deposit of $860. I call payroll and tell them to mail me a pay stub and to provide me with time sheets so I can see the amount I was paid for and to see if anymore money is owed to me. Payroll tells me I'm not going to get anything. I call my union rep he ignores me until mid October 2013 I tell him the situation and tell him that I want to sue. He tries to talk me out of it then finally states that he won't file a suit because myself and my site supervisor Cee are in the same union. He tells me good luck and hangs up. All further calls to him are ignored.

My question is obviously can I sue? What can I sue for? And does the jobs late payments extend the statute of limitations?

Note: I do have my conversations with payroll and union rep in email form.

You didn't follow the instruction to identify your state. Laws are different in each state.

If your employer didn't pay you all of the money you are owed, your recourse would be against your employer.

I will also point out that while state laws vary as to the payout of unused paid time off at termination (another reason you need to know your state) in no state does the law require an employer to pay out used PTO while you are still employed. No matter how much time you had, unless your CBA expressly states otherwise the law does not require your employer to pay you for time you did not work.

Agreed. Past that, if the employee has the option to have PTO paid out on demand, then arguably (per IRS) "constructive receipt" occurs when the accrual occurs, even if the employee does not request the buyout. And yes, there really have been court cases on this situation, which is why non-stupid employers do not ever open up that particular can of worms. There is an IRS Revenue Ruling (90-29) which discusses the specific rules on qualified donated leave, but which mentions the more general non-qualified situations.

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Quoting Mr. Knowitall

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You didn't follow the instruction to identify your state. Laws are different in each state.

If your employer didn't pay you all of the money you are owed, your recourse would be against your employer.

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Sorry New York State City of New York as employer

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Quoting cbg

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I will also point out that while state laws vary as to the payout of unused paid time off at termination (another reason you need to know your state) in no state does the law require an employer to pay out used PTO while you are still employed. No matter how much time you had, unless your CBA expressly states otherwise the law does not require your employer to pay you for time you did not work.

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I'm supposed to be paid Annual, Comp, and all unused holiday. I don't know about sick.

You'll need to take that up with your union.

When I checked my city employee pension account it showed that I was still considered an active employee. Some of the deductions from the september 2013 payment went into paying my pension, union, and transit check card as if I were an active employee.

I have no information about state employees. If you were employed by a private employer you MIGHT be due unused vacation depending on how your employer's policy was written but it is not guaranteed; you would not have had any comp time since that is illegal for private employers, and you would not be due any unused sick pay or unused holidays unless a legally binding and enforceable contract or CBA expressly and in so many words said you were. But I cannot tell you what is owed as an employee of the state as the laws are different. Once again, I refer you to your union.

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Quoting cbg

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I have no information about state employees. If you were employed by a private employer you MIGHT be due unused vacation depending on how your employer's policy was written but it is not guaranteed; you would not have had any comp time since that is illegal for private employers, and you would not be due any unused sick pay or unused holidays unless a legally binding and enforceable contract or CBA expressly and in so many words said you were. But I cannot tell you what is owed as an employee of the state as the laws are different. Once again, I refer you to your union.

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Former City of New York employee.
Union rep represents me and my supervisors.

What part of, talk to your union, do you not understand?

I do not know the laws for city employees in New York any more than I know them for state employees. You want to know the laws for private employees, I'm your girl. For public employees, I don't know them off the top and I don't have time to go researching them in the middle of a work day. You know how to use Google as well as I do.

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Quoting cbg

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What part of, talk to your union, do you not understand?

I do not know the laws for city employees in New York any more than I know them for state employees. You want to know the laws for private employees, I'm your girl. For public employees, I don't know them off the top and I don't have time to go researching them in the middle of a work day. You know how to use Google as well as I do.

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OK cbg, like I stated when I started the thread union rep told me it would be a conflict of interest because myself and my supervisors are in the same union said good luck and hung up. Thanks for your input though.