A TikToker is bringing wage theft to the forefront after her recent video on the topic went viral.
In the video, user Mia (@meohmyohmia) says that her previous employer did not want to pay her her final paycheck. She alleges that because of this, they withheld her final paycheck and accused her of “stealing”—an accusation Mia says is false.
One of Mia’s videos on the topic, posted on Thursday, currently has over 430,000 views.
“My old job decided a day before payday that they didn’t want to pay me and accused me of stealing from them,” Mia wrote in the text overlay of the video. “I did not steal from them and they are keeping my entire paycheck.”
She closes, “Wage theft is real and it has affected me in so many ways.”
In the video, she is on the phone with someone who is accusing her of taking something from the store and of harassing the store.
“Please don’t withhold my pay from me,” Mia says while crying. “I worked hard.”
In other videos on her account, she aims to provide evidence of various bosses texting her about theft and payment, then allegedly blocking her phone number.
“Tony says there is inventory missing and he is rewinding the cameras back a few days to see if it was during your shift. We are not accusing you of anything however we have to take the proper protocol. I can not discuss the details of the investigation. If there is no liability found on your end we will send your pay if there is liability your pay will be deducted for the amount of missing inventory. After we complete the investigation we will contact you,” one of the texts from an alleged employer reads.
Mia says the employer then blocked her, as her texts were getting sent as text messages rather than iMessages. She says she proceeded to text a different number for an alleged employer.
“Calculating your hours now and will send your pay shortly,” one of those texts from them reads.
Mia then sent them a slew of messages over the next several days.
“Ellie you stole from us you are truly a low life. Do not contact us anymore take it to court,” the next text from the employer reads.
Mia says she was then blocked again.
Finally, Mia posted a longer video explaining the entire situation before dropping the name of the business: Temple Custom Jewelers in San Diego, California.
In this longer video, Mia says she originally quit the job because it said it was not going to pay her an hourly wage. Furthermore, she says that it told her that if she were to stay on with the business, it would cut her hourly wage in half. She says she decided to quit and left before receiving her final paycheck, leading to the events in the other TikToks.
This video inspired a response from the jewelers, who encouraged viewers to look up Mia’s alleged legal history.
Mia’s legal history includes one small claims case from a former employer, which Mia said in a since-removed response video that this was unrelated to theft. Mia also said that none of these claims validate the company’s accusation that she stole from them.
Additionally, she said, if the company really had video evidence that proved she was stealing, it would have posted that instead.
“None of what they posted explains what I stole from them and why they haven’t paid me my wages,” she said in her response video, which was reviewed by the Daily Dot before its removal. “I’m not going to play this game back and forth with them.”
Temple Custom Jewelers has since turned off comments on its TikTok and Instagram, and its Facebook page is no longer operational. The Daily Dot has reached out to Temple Custom Jewelers via email.
Many people are questioning the legality of the jewelers’ actions under Mia’s TikToks.
“By law you can’t hold someone’s pay for theft,” one user alleged. “You have to go through the courts and file a police report if you suspect theft.”
According to the Society for Human Resource Management, this is true.
In a post detailing legal and illegal wage deductions, the firm wrote that employers are permitted to “hold employees responsible for a ‘shortage, breakage or loss [that] is caused by a dishonest or willful act or by the gross negligence of the employee.’ However, employers cannot deduct associated losses from employees’ wages.”
According to Society for Human Resource Management, if an employer wishes to deduct wages due to an alleged criminal action, the employer “must assert such claims in court or arbitration. Furthermore, employers should note that they would have to prove that the loss resulted from the employee’s dishonesty, willfulness or grossly negligent act, according to the California Department of Industrial Relations.”
In the comments section of one of her videos, Mia says that she is currently searching for a legal recourse. Until then, she took the time to thank the people of TikTok for supporting her.
“For everybody today that helped me have a voice in this situation, I want to truly thank every single one of you,” she says.
Mia did not immediately respond to Daily Dot’s request for comment via TikTok comment. Temple Custom Jewelers did not immediately respond to Daily Dot’s request for comment via website contact form.
Source: https://www.dailydot.com/irl/job-accuses-tiktoker-stealing-before-payday/
