Employee Handbooks

Employee Handbooks

A properly drafted employee handbook is critical to your organization. Without proper language, documents, and policies, employers can be subject to costly lawsuits and litigation. In addition, a well drafted employee handbook will help in the defense of any employment related matter. If you do not have an employee handbook, I would show you the practical rules for drafting Employee Handbooks: what to include and what not to include, and why. Effective employee handbooks discourage would-be plaintiffs, reduce the cost of employment-related lawsuits, help employers stay in business, and out of court. Handbooks communicate effective human resources policy. Recent legal changes make it imperative to amend your employee handbook:

• Identity Theft: Effective immediately, your handbook must be in compliance with Michigan’s new Social Security Number Privacy Act.
• Sexual Harassment: Employer liability for sexual harassment by co-workers.
• Arbitration: Reduce your statutory liability from many years to a few weeks. Do not attempt to pass along arbitration costs to an employee.
• ADA: Your organization is covered if it employs 20 or more employees. Employers who become aware of a disability and the need for accommodation must discuss that with an employee.
• FMLA: Your organization is covered if it employs 50 or more employees (count leased and/or temporary workers, too). Employers don’t have to count time not properly recorded as FMLA leave in addition to an employee’s 12-week entitlement. Substance abuse may allow an employee to qualify for FMLA leave. 
• Fair Labor Standards Act: New tests for exempt personnel. Non-exempt employees denied overtime pay may be awarded double damages plus actual attorney fees.
• Sex Discrimination: Employers may be liable for trans-gender discrimination.
• Workplace Violence: Employers must have zero tolerance policies against threats, bullying, and physical confrontations. Failure to address workplace violence may be a serious MIOSHA/OSHA safety violation.
• Health Care Benefits: Save money by encouraging generic drugs.
• Union Organizing Campaigns:  Supervisors must avoid looking at union cards. The NLRB considers that to be a severe unfair labor practice. The remedy: instant union status without an election.
• Electronic Mail, the Internet, and Computers: Employees are generally protected under the 4^th Amendment from employer intrusion into their work computers and electronic data unless employers draft a written policy allowing employer intrusion, monitoring, and inspection.   

To get started on your new employee handbook: please contact me at your earliest convinence. 

If you already have one, please send me your existing handbook via any format: disc, electronic file, or hard copy. After a quick review, I will let you know the issues we need to address, and provide you an estimate. Our handbook project will be scheduled to best suit your needs: meetings, telephone conferences, and/or via electronic mail. My goal is to provide you with an up-to-date employee handbook on disc. Then, you can reproduce your own handbook copies, and make changes.