Employee Handbooks In Florida

Included in your employee handbook should be a non-discrimination/ harassment policy. That policy should outline a complaint filing process to report any incidences of discrimination or harassment. Should you have such a process in place and an employee fails to take advantage of the preventative and corrective opportunities, you may avoid liability in a harassment suit.

With respect to minimum wage claims and employees who record their work time, the handbook should also explain that employees should clock out once they have completed their shift and have finished their work. Employees should be warned that no work of any kind should be performed by employees before they have clocked in or after they have clocked out. Employees should also be told to punch out for all meal periods and should not perform any work while they are punched out for any period. The handbook should also tell employees not to be on the premises of your company when they are not scheduled to work. Most importantly, employees should be told in the handbook that time records are the basis for their payroll and there fore it is very important that time records be accurate. Employees must report immediately any errors in the time records to their supervisors so that any errors or possible errors can be investigated and corrections made when needed.

As to benefits, this section of the handbook should be less detailed. The handbook should not go into detail as to benefits, as each employee may not be eligible for the same types of benefits. The handbook should merely refer employees to the appropriate person (usually the Human Resources department) if they have any questions about their benefits eligibility.

Finally, your employee handbook should list major infractions that may result in discipline or termination. This will be helpful for unemployment compensation claims where employees will allege that they did not know that their conduct constituted a violation of company policy. Examples of infractions may include: breach of client confidentiality; theft; unprofessional conduct (including threats of violence or harassment); falsification of time records; working overtime without authorization.

Each employee should receive a copy of the handbook and sign an "Acknowledgement of Receipt," which should be on a separate page of the handbook and able to be torn out and retained in each employee's personnel file.

This article is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of what your handbook should contain. Your employee handbook is one of the most important documents for your company, and therefore it is recommended to have an experienced labor and employment attorney draft a handbook or at a minimum, review your current handbook. New issues arise everyday in the employment context, and your handbook should be updated to address these issues. For example, provisions had to be added to employers' handbooks regarding employees' use of social media as well as new provisions regarding the Nursing Mothers in the Workplace Act, which was recently passed March 23, 2010. Our firm can also help employers draft other important employment related documents, such as applications for employment, termination forms, job descriptions, job advertisements, and performance evaluations.

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