Legal Question in Employment Law in Maryland

Is it legal for my employer to hold back my paycheck even though i worked because of not getting the results to a drug test? I have been working almost 2 weeks without a pay because they said they couldnt give me my check until the results came in then to find out my results was sent to the wrong place


Asked on 7/31/12, 5:22 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Lawrence Holzman Holzman Law Firm, LLC

nope -- they have to pay your wages "as and when due". They cannot withhold them for the reason you have stated. If they wanted to make your employment conditional upon a drug test result, they should have waited until they had the result before having you start work. Now they are in violation of both the Maryland Wage Payment Act and the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act.

What are they saying, that if the test comes back bad they don't have to pay you? That's ridiculous! BUT BUT BUT .... sounds like you are starting a new job -- so although you have legal rights here -- it may not be the best time to start-up with your new boss. Remember that you are almost certainly employed "at-will" and they can terminate you at any time.

As a technical matter, if they terminate you BECAUSE you raise these legal issues, that itself is a violation of law ("retaliation") --- but you may prefer to be employed rather than being unemployed having a lawsuit that may or may not produced results and either way will take a lot of time to resolve.

Please feel free to give me a ring 301-876-4393 if you want to chat about this some more.

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Answered on 7/31/12, 5:27 am


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