My former employers are trying to retain my pay...

From: Anja Brinich (anjabrinich@gmail.com, )
Area of law: Employment law
Country: Norway
State: All States/Provinces

The cafe where I was working as kitchen manager and head chef recently closed. Shortly before this we had a food kiosk at a music festival and I was placed in charge. The verbal agreement was that I would be paid 20,000 NOK tax-free for the week and would work 8-10 hrs a day and be responsible only for food, not staff issues. I stuck to this plan but was always available for shift leaders, etc via phone.
At the end of the festival there was an excess of food (worth 70,000 NOK)remaining and my employers blamed me for this because I was in charge of ordering, although I had no prior experience in ordering for crowds of 50,000 people, speak poor Norwegian, and do not think in kilograms. I had stated my worries about handling ordering early in the festival and had offered to return the excess food myself the day prior to the festival closing and offered them a list of leftover items to review. They did not look at the list but told me they would return everything themselves after the festival was over. The final day, they were extremely upset at the excess ordered food, and I agreed to allow them to pay me only 7,400 NOK for the festival and signed a contract stating that due to the excess groceries and resulting losses I was accepting less pay for my time. I didn\'t have much choice but to sign, as I had no contract previously to protect me.

In Norway, 10% of your monthly income is put aside each month and paid back in a lump sum the following June - this is your \"vacation money.\" My employers are now trying to withhold this money (to be paid June 2009)from me as further payment for the grocery losses at the music festival (they earned a great deal of money overall)and say that their lawyer says they have a right to make me pay for half the losses (31,500 NOK). I say that I already allowed them to pay me less than originally agreed for the festival (7,400 instead of 20,000 NOK) and that the vacation money is not theirs to withhold, as it is a governmentally mandated thing that they are responsible to hold back until the yearly payout but is not theirs to keep. I was not grossly negligent on the job, simply unprepared. I have worked for these people for 2 years and during that time I greatly improved their kitchen\'s quality and efficiency. They also took my recipes I created for the festival and used them !
at another festival without my permission - technically making profit out of something of which I am the creator(wouldn\'t creative ownership laws apply there?). I know that my former employers are deeply in debt to many parties and I think that they are just trying to save themselves 10,900 KR (the amount due to me next June in vacation money), but they are saying they might take the matter to court to try to recuperate from me the 32,000 NOK they say they have a right to claim from me.

Sorry for the long explanation, but it is a complicated situation...Do they have a case?