He was on the staff of Wipro USA when he worked in the
United States on a software project for Apple in 2011, for
roughly $100,000 per year. During a visit to India, he
continued working on the project.
When the project was complete, Wipro told Paul that a
mistake had been made: While he was away, he should have
been switched to Wipro India for lower Indian wages,
according to emails Paul shared with CIR.
A company representative asked him in one email to sign backdated
agreements and return salary he’d already been paid. When Paul
refused, he said Wipro withheld pay, benefits and documents he needed
to maintain his immigration status – and threatened to hold his visa
hostage.
“They wanted to take all my salary,” Paul said. “I was forced and
coerced.”
I've been overpaid by my employer in the past, usually the money just disappears from my account a few days later with no intervention on my part (like a partial ACH reversal). It wasn't my money to begin with, so I had no right to contest it. Even though it was nice to see the extra balance for those few days, it wasn't mine to keep.
If I had transferred the money out such that the reversal was not possible, I'm sure it just would have been withheld from my next check (a.k.a withholding pay/benefits). Now the part about withholding documents sounds illegal, but so is keeping the ill-gotten salary. This of course assumes that Paul was in fact over-paid, which is what TFA says, so safe to assume.
Several of the anecdotes in the story have weird details like this where it's not 100% clear who is screwing who. That does not in any way excuse what some employers are doing.
* s/Indian/India/ in my parent post -- too late to Edit
