Employees smart enough to flee the sinking ship known as Pay By Touch are getting their comeuppance. While the new custodial rule of Tom Lumsden has managed to raise $9 million, part of which is earmarked for six weeks of missed paychecks during founder John Rogers' last hurrah, he's not wasting pennies on deserters. A tipster forwarded us an email exchange between a "screwed employee," who was originally told ex-employees would be paid back wages alongside the suckers, and Pay By Touch HR executive Judy Nelson. Here's the key piece of the email:

The policy of paying terminated employees has changed since you had your exit interview now that we have a custodian in place. Our plan when you terminated your employment is different than what is happening now.

Now there's a suspicion among Pay By Touch refugees that they'll be treated like creditors — winding up on the bottom of the accounts payable list. At least those with new jobs can console themselves with the fact that they'll be receiving regularly scheduled checks for the foreseeable future.