Honda pays extra bonus to employees by mistake, now wants it back

Japanese carmaker Honda overpaid bonuses to hundreds of employees and has now asked them to either return them or have them deducted from future salaries, according to reports.

The company’s Marysville plant in Ohio, that makes cars like Accord, CR-V, Integra, TLX and NSX, told employees in a memo, that their bonuses, which were disbursed earlier this month, were miscalculated, Fortune reported.

“Earlier this month Honda provided bonus payments to its associates, some of whom received overpayments. Issues related to compensation are a sensitive matter and we are working quickly on this item to minimize any potential impact to our associates," Honda said in a statement.

The firm gave them nine days until September 22 to refund the extra amount, as per reports. If the staffers fail to respond to the mail to tell their choice of mode of repayment, the amount would automatically be deducted from their pay cheques later.

The wife of a Honda employee told NBC News, “Not a lot of people can handle this kind of a hit.” She said her husband had been asked to return almost 8 percent of his bonus, which amounted to hundreds of dollars.

Even as employees may find it unfair, legal experts have clarified that the automaker is well within its rights to tell employees to return the extra bonus. “Under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which applies to all employers in the United States, it’s quite clear that overpayments of bonuses or wages can be recouped by the employer,” Sarah Cole, a law professor at the Ohio State University was quoted as saying by Moneycontrol.com.