My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Illinois, Chicago
I was just terminated from my job working in the same building where (International House at the University of Chicago) at the front desk. It is 100% my fault, I ran up to my room to get a letter to mail and sat down, and somehow fell asleep for half an hour. I think they are totally in the right, but they confiscated my laptop and refused to return it. They took it most likely so someone else wouldn't, which is nice, but do they have the right to hold on to it until they have a chance to scold me? I called 311 and they said it was completely illegal, and when I told the managers this they got furious and returned it, but told me if I had called the real police they would have laughed at me.
So the question is, does the employer have the right to hold onto property such as laptops. Checks are one thing, since that is employer property until exchanged, but this computer was 100% mine, not used for work business. They would have returned it later, but there was no reason not to return it right away. Since I live in the building, once terminated I reverted to resident status, so isn't this actually the same as stealing a resident's computer?
Andy

