Unreturned Tools and Uniforms

The IWC Wage Orders provide that, in lieu of posting a bond, an employee can agree to a deduction from their last paycheck to cover the cost of tools, uniforms or other items you furnished that they did not return to you.¹ However, court decisions have made clear that employers cannot make deductions without proving theft or culpable negligence, even where the employee signed an agreement authorizing the deduction.²

1. IWC Wage Orders sec. 9(c)

2. Barnhill v. Robert Saunders & Co., 125 Cal. App. 3d 1 (1981); Kerr’s Catering Service v. Department of Industrial Relations, 57 Cal. 2d 319 (1962); DLSE Enforcement Policies and