Q: Can an employer deduct business expenses from earned commission, then retaliate when I ask about it?: I'm a salaried-plus-commission, on a draw, employee whose contract is governed by New York law. My written contract defines how my commission is calculated. It does not include the deductions I'm asking about.

Those deductions were added later through an internal policy that was never signed as a contract amendment. My contract says any change must be signed by both sides.

The deductions are not my own expenses. They are business costs the company incurs to service a job, and the company takes part of those costs out of commission I've already earned. On lower-value work, the deduction can be more than my commission, so the company profits on the job while I personally lose money.

The company's own written policy describes these as amounts taken from "commissions earned." When I asked in writing what exactly gets deducted, a manager admitted in writing that there is no defined list.

Shortly after I raised these questions in writing, a manager threatened to take away part of my book of business. My questions were only about how pay is calculated.

Is this a wage-deduction violation? Is the threat retaliation?

Q: Can my employer legally require me to stay past my scheduled shift for mandatory changeover without: I work for Allied Universal in New York. My scheduled shift is 7 AM to 3 PM, but we are regularly required to stay past 3 PM for mandatory changeover until our relief arrives. We clock out after relief comes and after changeover is completed, not at our scheduled end time. This happens about twice per week on average and has been going on for months. We are usually held until around 3:05 PM, but management and HR say there is a "7-minute grace period" so we are not paid for the extra time. The rounding policy seems to always benefit the company, not employees. I want to know if this is legal under New York or federal

labor law.

Q: Can I start a lawsuit against the company that fire me for retaliation?: I was recently fired from my job at a major investment bank. They claimed for performance but I was never given any performance improvement plan (PIP) or any details on what I did not accomplish, even though multiple colleagues agreed I performed better than most on our team. I had been assaulted by a colleague who works in our same office. He was convicted of assaulting me, and I let HR know, but they did nothing, claiming this is only one assault and they can't do anything. They told me to ask my manager if I could work remotely to avoid this colleague. My manager said she would ask her manager, but warned me that this did not look good for me, and I could be "blacklisted" for trying to avoid RTO ( Return To Office) policy, and because the colleague who assaulted me was in sales, and directly contributing to the bank's profits. My request was denied, and then my manager stopped meeting with my 1:1 meetings, and my total compensation got reduced, until I was fired. Is there a potential case her for retaliation?