A win for the little guy

I submitted my first wage claim earlier this year when an ex-employer refused to correct a mistake on my paycheck. I had gone home sick one day and instead of paying me for the missed time using accrued sick time, they paid me out of my accrued vacation account. (At this company they didn't combine sick and vacation time.) I e-mailed my superior to ask him to fix this and received a reply that he had considered my request for sick leave benefits for the afternoon of <insert date here> and had determined that "it would not be granted". Um, what? Isn't that why we have sick time? I had over 20 hours of sick time available, more than enough to pay me for the four hours I missed when I went home early because I was feeling ill. So I thought about it and began to wonder if what had happened was correct. And that's when I consulted BOLI - the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries.

Now you might be thinking, why not just let it go? I did consider this option. But it seemed grossly unfair to me that a decision like this could be made. Surprisingly enough as I never get fired up about anything <insert sarcasm here>, I got fired up about this. I gathered my information and submitted a formal complaint with BOLI. Months passed and I began to suspect that my complaint was either never received at their offices or the investigation was concluded in the company's favor. Imagine my surprise when a few days ago I received a check in the mail.

Now I don't know what to do with the check. There is a small part of me that wants to send it directly back to the company with a note attached stating: "It was never about the money." And then there is the part of me that likes to shop and wants to use the money to buy a new pair of shoes.

Score:
Corporate America 0
Little Guy 1