Help Wanted: Boss has options on direct deposit

DEAR CARRIE: We used to get paid by direct deposit on the first and 15th of the month. But last summer our boss informed us that it would take up to 72 hours for our direct deposit to process. Now, instead of getting paid on the first and 15th, it's more like the fifth and the 19th of the month. I never heard of direct deposit taking so long. How is this possible, and is it right? -- Frustrated 

DEAR FRUSTRATED: I checked with Rob Basso, the owner of Advantage Payroll Services in Freeport. Your company may have some options to get the pay to you sooner.

Basso said he requires clients to submit their payrolls at least 48 hours in advance to ensure proper processing and clearing of the payroll checks for access by employees. After getting payroll information from clients, his company's electronic system creates files with direct-deposit information, such as a bank's routing number, an employee's bank account number and deposit amount.

This file is then electronically sent to the national Automated Clearing House network, which separates out the transactions for each bank and transmits those files to the institutions.

"Because of this process we require that payrolls be submitted at least 48 hours prior to the effective date [check date] to ensure timely deposits into each account," he said.

Another reason for requiring this time between processing and the checks' effective date, he said, is that some financial institutions, such as some credit unions and smaller banks, may not have an automated process and post the transactions manually.

He said your employer has options for shortening that 72-hour span. The company could, for example, simply have the payroll processed closer to the effective date of the payroll checks.

"At Advantage, some clients choose to risk running [payroll] the day before the check date and still receive their deposit the next day," he said. "We never suggest this, but employers make the final call."

But some employers, such as yours, prefer longer windows for processing the checks.

"Sometimes employers make this statement to employees because they want to buy more time to fund payroll," he said.

Or the payroll provider may ask for 72 hours, Basso said, "but really only need 48 hours."

As to the legality of the effective change in your pay date, companies' are required to give employees a heads-up before making such changes.

I would send the boss a copy of this column anonymously to show him some options. 

DEAR CARRIE: I lost my job 14 months ago as the only driver for a warehouse company. Because of the economic downturn my hours were cut, and then without warning I was laid off. I remained in contact with the company weekly, and it told me there was no work. And the company continues to verify to the unemployment-benefits people that I was laid off. In the meantime the company has purchased a new truck and hired a new driver without calling me back. Is this legal? -- Legal Firing?

DEAR LEGAL:  It's legal because New York is an employment-at-will state.

"Regarding the termination of your employment, unless there is a written agreement stating otherwise . . . it does not appear that your employer had a legal obligation to give you advance warning of the termination of your employment," said Ellen Storch, counsel at Kaufman Dolowich Voluck & Gonzo in Woodbury.

In addition, private employers are not obligated to recall former employees unless the companies have a contractual obligation to do so, she said.

"Absent such an agreement, it would not appear, based on the facts described, that the company has done anything unlawful by hiring someone else to do your former job," Storch said.