Worried About a Mistake Affecting a Colleague's Pay? Can They Ask Me to Cover the Loss?

I wanted help with a query. I was working with this employee for one and a half years. A few days ago, I made a mistake that went unnoticed. As a result, my colleague had to suffer a wrong payout indirectly because of that mistake. Now, I am worried—can they ask for any kind of recovery from me?

Dear member,

You have expressed your fear that your employer may recover the losses caused by your mistake. However, the information provided is inadequate. Please confirm your designation, the nature of your duties, details of the incident, who discovered the incorrect payout, when it was discovered, and whether any follow-up correspondence was done or action was taken to recover the unauthorized payment.

Recovery of losses as punishment

The recovery of losses can be done as a punishment. However, before awarding the punishment, the employer must conduct a domestic inquiry and give you a chance to defend your case. If your misconduct is established, only then can the employer award a punishment. However, in recovering the losses, the employer cannot recover 100% of the amount. It has to be a small percentage of the total amount.

Thanks,

Dinesh Divekar

I am working for a life insurance company at the associate level. Two months ago, the beneficiaries' account was wrongly edited while working on a similar case. The money was transferred to the wrong person instead of the nominee. The total sum was around 22 lakhs. It was identified 2-3 days later, and now the company has initiated recovery from the person, but he is not answering the call. My fear is if they can turn to me if the amount is not recovered.

Dear Partner,

A number of details do not add up here. Normally, for disbursing such high-value payments, there would be several checks in the process by different stakeholders. It seems strange that just because of an incorrectly updated bank account number, the payment was released. This should have been checked by multiple members of the company.

The transaction here reveals a highly vulnerable environment regarding excess payment errors. Therefore, this error should not be blamed entirely on you, as the company also has a part in it.

The possibilities for the inquiry would be on two paths. One is whether this was an innocent error from your end or if there was any fraudulent activity involving collusion with the external member who received the payment.

If the inquiry reveals that the error was on your part due to not following the prescribed protocols, then the chances are that exit proceedings may be initiated against you. However, if the inquiry reveals any collusion between you and the member who received the payment incorrectly, it is possible that the company may sue you to recover the loss.