If I owe money to my retirement plan and the fiscal year is closed, do I have any options?
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If I owe money to my retirement plan and the fiscal year is closed, do I have any options?
I am an AZ state employee and was working part time for 9 months before I became full-time, at which time I began contributing to the mandatory retirement plan. I was told by my employer that I owe money to my retirement plan from my part-time service. Sure enough I looked it up and at 20 weeks of qualified part time status you have to contribute to retirement. They never informed me of this and they never deducted anything from my paycheck. That was over a year ago and the fiscal year has long since closed. They are giving me 90 days to pay the balance. Do I have any other options?
Asked on February 24, 2011 under Business Law, Arizona
Answers:
MD, Member, California Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 13 years ago | Contributor
By notice, do you mean that you were not informed of your contribution requirements possibility or that you have to be required to contribute at all? If you knew you had to contribute if you worked over a certain amount of weeks, then unfortunately, you may be held partially responsible for the issues of reimbursing your account. That being said, if your employer waited over a year to ask you to contribute, you need to speak with your union or state dept of labor to see if there is a statute of limitations issue. If there is none or it is greater than one year, please ask your employer to give you a pay plan to reimburse the account. You cannot pay back what you don't have and they cannot withhold monies from you on future paychecks when it is was partially the employer's fault.
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