Howdy fellow workers! I have a question about a potential wage theft situation in Tennessee.
My wife works for a non-profit, and she recently got an offer for another job at a different non-profit in town. She turned in her notice since the new place asked her to begin June 1. For her current job, she was asked a few months ago to go to a work conference happening this week. For weeks, the plane tickets and lodging have been secured and paid for by the company card. Since giving her notice, though, her boss told her she would not be going on the trip so she can tie up loose ends before leaving.
Enter today when her boss came back to give an ultimatum: either she sends them a check for the price of the plane ticket for this trip or they deduct the cost of the plane ticket from her final paycheck. They have only communicated this over the phone (so we definitely need things in writing), but this smells like a wage theft situation if they deduct the money from her paycheck given that it was a work trip for company benefit paid for with company money and the company said she now cannot go on the trip.
Am I totally off base and we actually are on the hook for the money? I'm hoping not for several reasons, not the least of which is that we don't have a ton of money currently. Or am I on the right track thinking that they absolutely cannot ask my wife to deduct this expense or to pay them back for the airfare?
If there's any additional context that would be helpful, please let me know! Most of what I've found deals with more common deduction questions (like uniforms and equipment) or tax deductions at the end of the year, so any guidance helps.