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LJN NewslettersNewsSectionsThe Corporate Counselor

Making Your Employee Handbook Work For You, Not Against You

By Paul F. Mickey, Jr.
May 30, 2006

Is your handbook truly up to date? One of the points in the employment relationship where the employer can best position itself to achieve its business objectives is in the setting of policy ' a process in which the law affords employers broad latitude. A properly drafted policy manual can help foreclose or limit a lawsuit, and a manual that is prepared or updated carelessly can serve as the foundation for a legal claim. Here are several ways to tell at a glance whether your organization has postured itself to best advantage.

Prohibition of Retaliation

Retaliation is one of the most difficult claims to defend against often an employee can posit a plausible claim simply by showing that he/she engaged in some protected activity (such as raising questions about legal compliance or inappropriate conduct) and that some adverse consequence followed. Employees who feel under scrutiny may lodge complaints to lay the groundwork for a retaliation claim and thus ward off discipline. The employer is put in a position of disproving the negative inference, and the test is usually whether reprisal was a motivating factor, not whether it was the sole factor. The absence of an articulated anti-retaliation policy hampers the employer's ability to defend itself, in a situation where the playing field may already seem tilted against it. In addition, some statutes require that employers promulgate anti-retaliation policies.

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