Employer making illegal deductions? Help with letter to them about it?

Recently my friend had a mixup at her office. They hired a new bookkeeper and she handed in 500.00 cash from her window and the bookkeeper says she never turned it in. The company is saying she has to pay it back and started automatically deducting weekly money from her direct deposit without even telling her. When she asked the bookkeeper she said it was for the missing money. We did some research and it looks like according to the Dept of Labor this is illegal. It looks like employers have no right to deduct anything except the requirements for social security and health insurance etc. Can anyone confirm this is right? She wants to send a certified letter to her company owner because the woman only speaks to the bookkeeper and none of the staff directly so we thought by typing a letter about the deduction and having no knowledge of it and not having approved it and sending it certified if it ended up being a court case she would have proof. Any advice on the situation or the letter?

I disagree with all answers. Your friend needs to file a formal complaint with your state Department of labor.

With that being said, she is most likely to be fired. However, once she makes the complaint and if she is fired, she then has a course of action for retalitory termination which is protected by statute and the basis for her lawsuit.

Talk to an employment lawyer. If your friend writes her own letter and doesn't use "correct language", she could be hurting herself. If she comes across in any way as threatening or angry, it will bite her in the ***. Not to mention that she will be unemployed. Before she does anything, she needs to talk to an attorney and get his/her advice. If what the employer is doing is legal (and I'm not sure it is), then she has basically wrote herself out of a job. Get legal advice before going any further. If it is illegal, she will have legal recourse.

writting a letter to the employeer is only going to end with the loss of your friends job.

seek an Employment attorney-IMMEDIATELY,.. your friends job will then be protected, and she can get back the money that has been taken from her............unfortunately your friend will be looking for a new job no matter what your action to resolve the situation is.

I disagree with the previous post. Her entire case is not that she handed in the cash,... Her entire case is that there are unauthorized deductions being withheld from her paycheck,.. and that can be easily proven

Tread carefully. Odds are as soon as she refuses to make this good, she's going to get canned; and kiss u/e goodby as they will say it was for cause.

Is the job worth paying for the mistake is the first question to be asked here.

OBviously, if your friend handed in cash she should have received a receipt. No one is dumb enough to give someone a large amount of cash and not get a receipt.
She should send a copy of the receipt along with a letter asking that the unfair and illegal withholding be stopped and everything taken from her, so far, be returned. Make the letter polite so she doesn't get canned while she is at it.
If your friend cannot prove that she truned the money in she has no case and to make an issue of it would probably result in her being fired.
If the employer will not stop the deductions your friend should quit and get another job - if she can.
Her entire case hinges on her being able to prove that she turned in the $500.