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By Rav Eliezer Cohen
[1] Witholding Pay as Negotiation Tactic
Question: A business owner with many employees thought of a way to cut corners and maximize his bottom line; he realized that if he doesn’t pay his workers their salaries on time, they would become anxious and would agree to accept less than what they are owed. Is he permitted to use this tactic?
Answer: Definitely not.
Withholding a worker’s salary is the equivalent of stealing. The Gemara in Bava Metziah (112) lists five Biblical prohibitions one transgresses when he deliberately doesn’t pay his employees, including theft and not paying on time.
Unfortunately, some businessmen attempt to save money by engaging in cutthroat tactics such as this. The reason they do so is because they believe that all the money in their business is theirs exclusively. They fail to realize that once an employee has done work for them, the money he is owed now belongs to the employee; it is no longer the employer’s money. By not paying the worker on time, an employer is literally taking money from him; yet the employer still thinks it is his own money and he can do with it as he pleases.
If one has the money and doesn’t pay on time, he transgresses the prohibition of Bal Talin, delaying an employee’s wages. If he forces the worker to accept a lower payment, he is a simple thief. That is certainly not allowed.
If the employer really doesn’t have the money and is doing his best to work out some form of settlement, that can be different with regard to Bal Talin. However, if one is withholding money as a way to gain leverage to force his employees to settle for less than they are owed, that is never allowed, and he definitely is doing a terrible thing.
[2] Refusing a Delivery to Avoid Paying
Question: As I head out to the store on Friday afternoon, the cleaners delivery pulls up. I do not have enough money to pay for both the cleaners and my groceries for Shabbat; can I refuse the delivery for today, and go pick up my items from the cleaners at a later date?
Answer: The Bi’ur Halacha discusses this question in the beginning of Hilchot Shabbat. The background for the question is that the prohibition of Bal Talin, not paying a worker on time, usually does not apply to a Kablan – a worker hired for the job, as opposed to a worker hired by the day or hour. According to this reasoning, one does not have to pick up his suit from the cleaners on the same day that the suit is ready. If, however, the suit is delivered to one’s house, and he accepts it, he does have an obligation to pay that day.
The Bi’ur Halacha discusses a case similar to ours, where a cleaner delivers one’s laundered clothes to his home on Erev Shabbat, and the man only has enough money to either purchase respectable Shabbat food or pay for the laundering. He says that although paying an employee takes precedence over K’vod Shabbat, the individual can tell the cleaner that he does not want to accept the clothing now, and since he isn’t taking the clothing, he does not have an obligation to pay for them yet. In this manner he will be able to use his money instead for his Shabbat food.
The Aruch HaShulhan disagrees and rules that if the laundry is delivered to one’s house, he is required to accept it and pay for it on that day. In his opinion, if one does not do so, he transgresses the prohibition of Bal Talin.