PORUM, Okla. — When you get your paycheck, you expect access to all of it.
When a Porum man couldn’t access his money, he contacted 2 News. What we found could help you in a similar situation.
David Goekler took a job as a crane operator for one of the subcontractors working on the new control tower at Tulsa International Airport. He was handed a debit card when he was hired to load his paycheck onto each payday.
However, when Goekler tried to transfer his pay from the card to his bank account, he found he couldn't access any of the funds. "I cannot get a dime off of it," he said.
He told 2 News his bank could not access the funds either to transfer them to his bank account, so his boss used Zelle to deposit the amount of his paycheck into Goekler’s bank account.
This issue repeated itself on the following payday. After being let go, Goekler claimed he still could not access his final pay on the debit card.
What his bank could tell him about it became an ongoing frustration. "They charge you to check the balance," Goekler said. "They charge you to pull money out, and they charge you to leave money in. It’s ridiculous. For two hours, my banker tried to get the money off this account. I called the number on the card and tried to work with customer service, but got nowhere. I called the company and found out they had limits—you could only draw a portion of your paycheck off of that card on any given day."
David Bryan, Assistant General Counsel for the Oklahoma Department of Labor said he could not talk about what Goekler experienced directly because his experience is under investigation.
But, he could tell 2 News, "It's not unusual for employers to use debit cards to pay their employees, but there can't be any fees associated with that which would deduct from the wages. Also, there cannot be any restrictions regarding when the money could be accessed, such as a limited number of withdrawals or any sort of time period where it would be available."
Goekler indicated that the card wasn't his only pay issue. He stated he was told that he did not need to receive a pay stub.
Bryan said, “If an employee works and lives in Oklahoma, the employer is required to follow Oklahoma labor laws, and that includes providing a pay stub for each pay period."
Bryan explained further, "The statute specifies that pay must be payable or redeemable upon demand without discount. Employers may deduct payroll taxes or health insurance as agreed in writing, but such agreements must be signed by both parties.”
Bryan told 2 News Oklahoma's Department of Labor wants to hear from Oklahoma employees experiencing problems with receiving their pay. Connect by going to its homepage and clicking on the "Wage and Hour Claim" tile.
"We try to resolve our wage claims in a timely manner—usually 50 days or less," he said.
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