Posted on 03/31/2020 7:13:19 PM PDT by Zhang Fei
AUSTIN (KXAN) – The company behind a plan last week to cut some of its employees’ pay checks if the $2-trillion COVID-19 stimulus bill was approved has now changed its mind.
The plan would’ve allowed the company to reduce paychecks by the amount of stimulus payment expected from the government.
The company wanted those workers to sign what it called its “Employee Emergency Compensation Fund.”
The agreement would have also allowed the company to take 50% of the stimulus act’s $500 per child credit.
A worker who asked that we not identify him provided KXAN a copy of the letter last week. The worker also asked that we not identify the company because he did not want any fallout over the company’s plan to negatively impact his coworkers’ ability to continue earning a living.
The company went unidentified until the company sent KXAN a statement Monday. The statement was sent from a public relations company on behalf of ImageNet Consulting. The statement was attributed to the company’s president, Pat Russell.
While there was uncertainty about the federal government response, we also asked a small group of employees to reduce their compensation by an amount equal to any government support they received,” Russell wrote in the statement. “Our intentions were to serve the greater good and protect our most vulnerable employees. However, we understand our plan was ill-advised. We have rescinded the potential program, and we apologize for any pain or confusion it caused.”
Russell said his company was trying to figure out how to deal with what he called “massive business disruptions” related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the pay reduction plan was their way of “…ensuring we could keep as many people as possible employed for as long as possible. We implemented a series of steps to cut costs
(Excerpt) Read more at wlns.com ...
All your stimulus are belong to US!
...ImageNet Consulting...
Well, there goes their net image.
So this entire story/report is false, never happened?
Looking at the website and other stories, it appears that it’s Oklahoma City, not Austin.
No, the reasoning given by the company as to why they wanted employee money is booooooogus. They signed their death warrant. Nobody is going to want to work with them. They are like the guy that went around three states buying up all the hand sanitizer. A pariah. Right now they are not looking for work. All the work from home setup/support has them busy as hell if they are like everyone else in the industry.
It was such a dumb idea I thought it was fake news.
Got it.
They were going to be furloughed WITH PAY the company was going to pay them while they were waiting for them to receive the government funds the company wanted them to repay part of the payment they received from the government!! I see nothing wrong with this, what I do see is an employee wanting to be paid AND get to keep the money from the government!! WELL NOW these employees can go with NO MONEY for weeks until uncle sugar comes through for them!!! You just can’t fix stupid!!
Texas company looking to dock stimulus money from paychecks, relieve their payroll: report
I stand by my comment on it too. I wonder if a class action was indeed threatened as I suggested would happen if they tried this stunt.
And this is NOT a stimulus package. There is nothing to stimulate.
Oh man! LOL that goes back... seems like yesterday
I’m an “essential worker” but lost about 6 hours a week. And they aren’t going to compensate. That adds up for me.
And there are nurses losing hours being called off because “elective” treatments are being put on hold to make room for Covid-19 patients... but they don’t have any yet and there are empty beds in many areas still. This whole thing is screwed up.
I know there’s going to be a lot of snark about this company. But for management to resort to these measures suggests that this company is not long for the world. This bug will become the economic equivalent of Armageddon for a lot of companies - the last straw that sends them into receivership.
What, did cousin Eddie go and kidnap him?
Also an IT company. What a shock... lol. Big presence in Dallas. Think they do some outsourcing.
Bingo. According to their website they should be making money hand over fist. They are in the absolutely perfect niche right now... managed networks. Sounds like a money grab by the owners.
[What, did cousin Eddie go and kidnap him?]
This is basically the company seizing the employee's government check from them.
How would it be different from a company saying they will reduce one's pay by the amount of early social security they start taking?
-PJ
I don’t know, but I’ll bet they have no written contract that says the company has to pay them while they are not working.
If they are paying an employee who is not working, I’d think they can pretty much dock him whatever they want.
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