Healthcare unions move to block MultiCare from garnishing wages

The Washington State Nurses Association, SEIU Healthcare 1199NW and UFCW 3000 filed for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) to prevent MultiCare Health System from garnishing wages without employees’ consent to recover alleged overpayments related to an extended outage of the employer’s timekeeping system.

Unions assert that MultiCare’s plan violates WAC 296-126-030, which states that private employers can only recover overpayments by deducting money from paychecks without consent if the overpayment is discovered and the employer “implements a plan” to recover it within 90 days. Crucially, the overpayment must have been “infrequent,” “inadvertent,” and the employer must provide “documentation” of the disputed amount.