Most employees find themselves taking home only a small percentage of their salaries due to garnishment orders requiring them to pay their debts. The garnishment orders not only affect the employees but the employers who must deduct the specified amounts and ensure that they reach the creditors on time. Following this realization, most employers find themselves in difficult situations if they fail to follow the stipulated federal and state regulations regarding garnishment orders.
Addressing the case scenario
The employer needs to understand that he cannot fire the employee simply because he has a garnishment order requiring him to pay for child support. The reason for this is the fact that under the Consumer Credit Protection Act (CCPA) title III, an employee who is garnishing single debt cannot be fired (United States Department of Labor). Moreover, the employee must have prior information regarding a garnishment order, which is not the case here. Furthermore, it is clear that the employer did not inform the employee of the court order before initiating the deductions on the employee’s paychecks. As a Human Resource officer, I would advise my boss to retain the employee considering that he only has one garnishment order.
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The Consumer Credit Protection Act is clear on how to deal with employees with more than one garnishment order. According to the title III of this act, an employee has the right to fire an employee with more than one order as it is risky to the business owing to the intricacies of effecting those orders. Initially, the employer had to deal with one garnishment order, which was canceled only to receive another garnishment order on child support. Moreover, the employee received yet another garnishment order in a personal injury case.
The increase in garnishment orders makes the employee a liability to the company. Essentially the employer has to calculate the percentages ad forward the payments to the relevant parties, which is both demanding and risky. A failure or delay to submit the payments would affect the company, as it would be held liable for the payments. For this reason, I would advise the boss to fire this employee, which is provided for by the Consumer Credit Protection Act title III. However, it is important to consider the state business is operating since state garnishment regulations may vary from the federal regulations. For instance, some states such as Georgia requires employers to continue paying the garnishments even if a person is not employed or does not earn enough (Brook, 2014). An employer who fails to pay the garnishments may be forced to pay the debtor’s full amount.
References
Brook, M.C. (2014). The Perils of ignoring wage garnishment orders. Society for Human Resource Management. Retrieved on 18 January 2019, from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/compensation/pages/wage-garnishment-orders.aspx
United States Department of Labor. (n.d). Wages and hours worked: Wage garnishment. Retrieved on 18 January 2019, from https://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/elg/garnish.htm
