In California, employers have no right to withhold final paychecks until employees return company property. Employers also may not make any deductions from employees’ pay to cover the outstanding company property without authorization and permission from the employees.
Regardless of what an employee may or may not have done to an employer or an employer’s property, employers must always pay a terminated employee on the same day as the termination. Employers must always pay employees who quit no later than 72 hours after the employees provide notice of quitting or at the time of quitting where employees provide at least 72 hours of notice.
However, this does not mean that employers do not have a remedy. Employers may file a lawsuit against employees to obtain orders from the court for the return of company property when employees do not return the property upon request.