Ask these same business people the question, “What is your greatest challenge?” and the answer will be identical, “Our Employees.”

 The Employee Challenge finds no better environment than the fast food industry. Consider these startling statistics:

• approximately 2 million workers are employed in the areas of food preparation and food servicing including fast food according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics Report.
• The Wall Street Journal reports that fast food restaurant employee turnover can be as high as 200% per year. White, E. The Wall Street Journal 2/17/2005 p.A1

 The birthplace of the modern fast food industry and the millions of employees who work everyday in the industry  can be said to be  San Bernardino. California . The industry’s birthday is also well document – - March 2, 1955. On this  date, Ray Kroc formed a new franchising company, McDonald’s Systems, Inc. , with Kroc using the restaurant format that the McDonald brothers developed in San Bernardino, California.  The age of the fast food restaurant franchise had arrived, and the Employee Challenge was on!

 As the number of fast food restaurants proliferated, so did job opportunities. Today, with the advent of such a large workforce, the franchisee now faced two challenges that could sap profit from the fast food restaurant franchise and expose the franchisee to significant liability and financial loss. 

 The first challenge is controlling labor costs as these costs are crucial to a fast food restaurant franchisee’s profits. The second challenge facing the fast food restaurant owner, employee lawsuits; an ever-growing phenomenon. Fortunately, the fast food restaurant owner is able to control costs and guard against employee lawsuits with the same tool – an effective Fast Food Restaurant Employee Handbook Policy Manual.

Paramount in the profit mix of the fast food restaurant is controlling labor costs.. Employees are the backbone of the fast food industry. Literally the bread and butter of the restaurant. Proper training is crucial to the orderly and quick service customers expect.  Yet, with employee turnover as high as 200% per year, franchisee and non-franchise owned restaurants have the daunting task of constantly training an entirely new workforce.  Policies and procedures need to be explained to each new employee.  For example, sanitation is crucial in a fast food restaurant as is knowing how to act in a robbery situation. Break and clock-in policies must be observed.  With the constantly changing workforce, the fast food restaurant owner using an effective Fast Food Restaurant Employee Handbook Policy Manual like the one offered by FingerTipManuals.com can quickly train a new employee on what is expected of the employee and what the “Rules of the Road” of proper employee conduct must be towards customers, other employees and suppliers.

 The second challenge facing  all employers and especially fast food restaurant owner is the steady increase in employment practices lawsuits.  The restaurant industry with its high emotional content is a frequent target of discrimination claims reported Cornell Hotel & Restaurant Administration Quarterly in its February, 2007 issue.  

About 500 employment practices lawsuits are filed in the United State every day.  Many employers believe that the greatest legal threat that companies face are employee lawsuits concluded the CFO.com article,  The Enemy Within. Consider the following:

 On March 5, 2008, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported $525,000 being paid by two restaurants as a result of sexual harassment.

 $325,000 paid by a Tampa Bay, Florida area pizza chain for subjecting female employees to a sexually hostile working environment.  According to the EEOC, the restaurant’s manager was sexually harassing two sisters ages 16 and 17 at the time they were employed by inappropriate touching as well as egregious verbal comments.

$200,000 paid to two employees of a steakhouse for the sexual harassment they were subjected to at the hands of an assistant manager.

 Once again, an effective Fast Food Employee Handbook Policy Manual should be the tool of choice for the fast food restaurant owner to guard against employee lawsuits.

An effective Employee Handbook Company Policy Manual is a crucial yet inexpensive tool Employers can use to protect their businesses and themselves from employee lawsuits. Consider the following sobering facts:

About 550 Employment Practices Lawsuits are filed on behalf of employees  in the United States every day.

In a 2004 report, the median jury compensatory award for employment practices cases stood at $250,000.00.

In 2005, the number of cases filed alleging labor law violations in the U.S.  District Courts was 35,252.  This does not include cases filed in the state courts alleging violations of state labor and employment laws.

In 2006, Verizon Communications had to pay $49 million to settle a pregnancy discrimination claim that was filed against its predecessors Nynex and Bell Atlantic.

During 2007, pregnancy charges increased to a record high level of 14% higher than 2006 claims.
Sexual Harassment charges were up 4%.  Additionally, a record of 16% of Sexual Harassment charges were filed by men.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) reports that 2007 saw the largest annual increase in charges against employers since the early 1990′s.  The EEOC recovered $345 million dollars in damages arising from claims involving race, retaliation, sex/gender, disability, age, national origin and religious discrimination.

The EEOC stated in its Press Release of March 5, 2008, that Retaliation complaints filed with the EEOC nationwide is up 18% to a record high level, doubling since 1992.

In addition to the statutory bases of discrimination, charges filed with the EEOC and state and local Fair Employment Practices Agencies also trended upward for the high visibility issues of pregnancy,  discrimination and sexual harassment.

Even Non-Litigated Claims are Expensive!

The fastest growing area of employment lawsuits is retaliation.  In 2004 settlements alone came to $90 million. This does not include retaliation lawsuits that were litigated.

In 2007, for the first time ever, retaliation charges were the second highest claim category, behind race, and surpassing sex-based charges nationwide.

Some examples of retaliation from a lawsuit or a complaint filed by an employee include: employment termination, pay reduction, job transfer, change in working hours, or even a written statement from the employee stipulating that the employee will not reapply for a job or position in that company in the future.

In 2005 companies paid out more than $378 million in non-litigated settlements of discrimination claims with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alone.   CFO Magazine, February 2007

How to Protect Against Employee Lawsuits

Quite simply, an effective and well-written Employee Handbook Company Policy Manual which complies with both state and federal law is your best defense against employee lawsuits.  Many Employee Policies are governed by state law as well as federal law.  Examples of state laws that influence an employee policy are Drug Free Workplace/Substance Abuse Policies, child labor and break periods.  An Employer in California, Florida, New York, Texas and all of our other states and Puerto Rico needs to make sure that the Employee Manual – Employee Policy Handbook complies with both Federal and State laws.

A final word is important-For Employers who have employees who are more comfortable speaking and reading in Spanish, a Spanish Employee Handbook Company Policy Manual should  be available to these Employees.  After all, if you want Employees to know what is expected of them, the Employees need to understand the policies.

A substantial part of my career was as a Business Law Attorney at General Foods Corporation in New York.  Having been given a number of assignments to represent General Foods’ entrepreneurial businesses such as Meriwether’s Restaurants located in Illinois and New Jersey; Mexican Foods of America with locations in Massachusetts, Colorado, California and Minnesota and Entenmann’s Bakeries with operations in Florida, Illinois, New York, Hawaii and California having thousands of employees,  I know first hand how important the right type of Employee Manual / Employee Handbook is to an organization, both to prevent employee lawsuits and for promoting good employee relations.

Considering that the Entenmann’s organization had thousands of employees in states far way from its New York headquarters, I had to come up with a way for the managers of these employees to have a working knowledge of Employment Law from a business person’s point of view – not as a lawyer.  The solution was a manual briefly describing Employment Law for managers. 

The business which is now FingertipManuals.com grew out of my experience, first, as an attorney with General Foods, where I was chief counsel for Entenmann’s Bakeries, as general counsel of a Swedish Multi-National’s US Operations, as general counsel of a publicly traded technology-consumer products company and in the private practice of Business Law and Employment Law in New York and Florida. 

I started writing Employee Manuals / Employee Handbooks for a number of clients who faced employee lawsuits and employment issues.  To me, an effective Employee Manual / Employee Handbook is the first line of defense against employee lawsuits, and every organization with one ore more employees should have such a Manual. I quicky recognized the need to develop an Employee Manual / Employee Handbook for small businesses at an affordable price so that every company regardless of size could afford to have this crucial protection from employee lawsuits.

Here now are the questions I asked myself in developing fingertipmanuals.com, and are the questions you need to answer for yourself in selecting the right  Employee Manual / Employee Handbook for your business:

1. What is the experience of the author of the Employee Manual / Employee Handbook?

2. Is the Employee Manual / Employee Handbook and each company policy already completed and immediately ready for your use, or are you purchasing a software template program for which you need to take the time to fill out and answer numerous questions posed by the software before your Employee Manual / Employee Handbook is ready to use?

3. Are you able to customize the Employee Manual / Employee Handbook to meet your business needs? For example, is the Employee Manual / Employee Handbook written in Microsoft Word format for ease in editing?

4. Is the Employee Manual / Employee Handbook written specifically for your state so that the Employee Manual / Employee Handbook complies with both state and federal laws?

5. Is the Employee Manual / Employee Handbook kept current as laws change? Is there an update service that keeps each Company Policy in your Employee Manual / Employee Handbook  up-to-date as laws change?

6. Is there a Spanish Employee Manual / Employee Handbook available for those Employees who may not be able to fully comprehend material written in English, and who are more comfortable reading Spanish ?

I hope this blog helps you to select the most effective Employee Manual / Employee Handbook to protect you and your business.

“At Will” employment is the term used for the basic employment adage that an employer can fire any worker for any reason or for no reason at all . . . for good cause or bad cause or no cause at all; an employee is employed “at the will” of the employer and the employer determines how long to employ a worker!

Employers need to be aware that legislation and court decisions in a number of states have eroded At Will employment.  Courts and legislatures are finding reasons to require just cause — a rational business justification — before a firing can be warranted.

The biggest inroads against At Will employment have been the various federal, state and municipal laws prohibiting discrimination.  Federal and state anti-discrimination laws prohibit the firing of an employee based on such characteristics as age, race, religion sex, and national origin.   A person no longer may be fired for “any reason” if the basis of the dismissal is a prohibited employment practice.

Another inroad into At Will employment is where an employee is either recruited from another company, accepts a position based on employer assurances of job security instead of accepting another job offer or transfers from one position within a company to another.  If promises were made to the employee to lure the employee to join the company or accept the position, courts have found a way around At Will employment, once again awarding damages to the discharged employee.

Many employers do not realize that an ill-conceived Employee Handbook Manual may in fact be the one instrument that erodes At Will employment the most.  As a business attorney who practices employment law , I have come across many instances where employers have written their own employee handbook manuals without legal advice. By creating an Employee Handbook Manual of company policies and procedures, the Employee Handbook Manual may inadvertently hold out the promise that employees will not lose employment as long as performance is satisfactory.  Where disciplinary steps are outlined, some courts have said that a contract has been established between the employer and employee so that the employee cannot be dismissed without good cause.

For years a number of courts in various states have sought to erode At Will employment through a legal theory known as “Implied Contract.”  Implied Contract means that as a result of an employer’s conduct, an employee has an “implied” contract with the employer requiring that an employee’s discharge be based on “cause,” such as an employee’s wrongdoing or inability to perform the job.  Courts do look at a Company’s Employee Handbook Manual in making such a determination.  It is most important that an Employee Handbook Manual be properly written in order to maintain At Will employment.  An explicit Employee Handbook disclaimer can preserve the At Will employment relationship in the face of an employee’s implied contract claim.  Not every disclaimer will have the desired effect of maintaining at will employment in the workplace.  An attorney can best advise you on the wording of the disclaimer

A business, be it a profit or not-for-profit , should use an effective Employee Handbook Policy Manual.  Here are the characteristics a business should consider when purchasing an Employee Handbook Manual.

1. Company’s Employee Handbook Company Policy Manual should be written by an attorney who practices business and employment law.

2. The Employee Handbook Manual should be written to comply with not only federal law, but also the law of the state where the business is located.

3. The Employee Handbook Company Policy Manual should be easy to implement.

4.  A Spanish Employee Handbook Company Policy Manual should be available for company’s and not-for profit organizations that have a Hispanic employees.

5. Proper language protecting At Will employment must be clearly evidenced in the Employee Handbook Company Policy Manual.

Another step that employers can take to protect At Will employment to the greatest extent possible is to use Human Resource Forms such as pre-employment documents including applications for employment and an At Will Employment Agreement, all in conjunction with the effective attorney written Employee Handbook Company Policy Manual.

While no one can guaranty that in any particular situation a court or legislature in a specific state may not seek to avoid At Will employment, the steps outlined in this article will help businesses and not-for-profit organizations maintain At Will employment.

Surprisingly,  many business owners do not.  Yet, the greatest legal threat that companies fear most are employee lawsuits, as CFO.com declared in, The Enemy Within.

About 550 employment practices lawsuits are filed in the U.S. everyday.

The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported that in 2005, companies paid out more than $378 million dollars in discrimination non-litigated settlements. In 2007, the EEOC received a total of 82,792 discrimination charges filed against private businesses.

As a Business Lawyer, I have practiced Employment Law for more than 35 years, and I have been writing Employee Handbook Company Policy Manuals since 1992. I have a passion for protecting businesses of all sizes, in any industry, profit and not for profit, from legal issues and problems arising from employee relations.  This passion for protecting businesses from employee lawsuits led to my creating FingerTipManuals.com which provides Employee Handbook Company Policy Manuals as well as other Employment Law Manuals for businesses.

FingerTipManauls.com provides a customized Employee Handbook Company Policy Manual for each State, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. A Spanish Employee Handbook Company Policy Manual for each state is also available.

The purpose of this blog is two-fold.  First,  to urge business owners to obtain and use an Employee Handbook in their businesses. Secondly, to explain the difference between products based on Templates and Ready-to-Use Employee Handbook products. There are many suppliers of Employee Handbook Company Policy Manuals; FingerTipManuals.com being one source. Hopefully, what follows serves to educate you on the options you have to purchase a product using a Template, or a product which gives you a ready-to-use customized Employee Handbook for your business.

An effective Employee Handbook Company Policy Manual is a very obvious, simple and inexpensive answer to the question, “How does a business protect itself against potential lawsuits based on employee behavior?”

There are several key elements and questions for a business owner to consider before purchasing and implementing an Employee Handbook Company Policy Manual. Here is what I consider to be the the key ingredients in choosing an effective Employee Handbook for your business or non-profit organization.

• Consider the expertise of the author of the Employee Handbook Policies. Is the author a Business Law Attorney skilled in writing Employee Handbook Company Policy Manuals?
• Is the Employee Handbook and its policies already completed and immediately ready for your company’s use, or are you purchasing a software Template program for which you need to take the time to fill out and answer numerous questions posed by the software before your Employee Handbook is ready for you to use?
• Is the Employee Handbook written and customized specifically for your state so that the Employee Handbook is compliant with both your state and federal laws?
• Does your Employee Handbook remain current as laws change? Is there an update service that keeps your Employee Handbook policies up-to-date as laws frequently change?
• Is there a Spanish Employee Handbook available for those Employees who may not be able to fuly comprehend material written in English, and who are more comfortable reading Spanish ?

Will you and your business be Safe Rather Than Sorry? The answers to the above questions will go a long way in your Ounce of Prevention in protecting you and your business from employee claims and lawsuits.

I’ve coined the phrase,” Triangle of Liability” to emphasize the potential liability facing every business from:

•   Claims by employees arising out of the employer-employee relationship.
Discrimination in employment is an example of this type of liability.

•   Claims resulting from employees interacting with one another.
Sexual harassment is an example of this type of liability.

•  Claims made by customers because of an employee’s behavior toward a customer.
In today’s information age, the release of a customer’s private information falls into this category.

These dangers businesses face from employee lawsuits cannot be overemphasized.

In 2005, companies paid out more than $378 million in discrimination claims, nonlitigated settlements with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.  In 2007, the EEOC received a total of 82,792 discrimination charges filed against private businesses.

Businesses have recognized for many years that they are in danger of becoming a victim of employee lawsuits. Twenty years ago, Professor Gould in his article Stemming the Tide observed that “the cost of lawsuits that respond to a discharge, as measured by jury awards and settlements, has also increased geometrically and is beginning to draw concern from the business community… Awards [in California wrongful termination suits] actually exceeded settlement demands by the employees’ lawyers by 187 percent.

More recently, CFO Magazine’s March, 2008 article, The Enemy Within reported that companies fear employee lawsuits more than any other legal threat.

How does a business owner protect him or herself from the possible financial cost imposed by the Triangle of Liability?   A very obvious, simple and inexpensive answer, if handled properly and preemptively, is an effective Employee Handbook Company Policy Manual.

Each specific employee policy must satisfy a particular state’s law as well as the federal law that applies to the subject matter of the policy.

Examples of necessary individual Employee Handbook Company Policies are Employee Polices on Sexual Harassment, Drug-free Workplace, Equal Opportunity, Employer Property Rights, Confidentiality, Employee Privacy, Conflicts of Interest, Disability, Discrimination, Employee Breaks, Fair Labor Standards Act, Military Leave, Family and Medical Leave, Garnishment, HIPAA, Immigration Law Compliance, Maternity Leave, OSHA, Overtime, Weapons in the Workplace, Working Hours, Time Records, and Customer Rlations.

In today’s workforce with ever increasing Hispanic, Spanish-speaking employees, a Spanish Employee Handbook Company Policy Manual is a must. In order for these employees to understand what the business owner expects, and what the employee can expect from the employer the employee must be able to read and comprehend the policies for which he/she is to be held accountable.

A key point to keep in mind is that both federal and states laws do change.  An Employee Handbook Company Policy Manual must be kept up-to-date to keep current as laws change.  An update service for your Employee Handbook Company Policy Manual Update Service which provides for such changes in law is crucial.

This blog provides business owners with important information on employment law. Please understand that reading this blog or any exchange of e-mails does not establish an attorney-client relationship. The information contained in my blogs is not legal advice and you may not rely on any of this information as legal advice. Should you have specific legal issues relating to the material in this blog, you should contact an attorney in your area.

Knowledge gained from this aspect of Employment Law may very well help protect business owners from pitfalls that can lead to expensive law suits and damages. Businesses face significant damage awards and litigation if the business owner does not “get it right.” Two examples make the point.

On March 5, 2008, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported $525,000 being paid by two restaurants as a result of sexual harassment.

-$325,000 paid by a Tampa Bay, Florida area pizza chain for subjecting female employees to a sexually hostile working environment.  According to the EEOC, the restaurant’s manager was sexually harassing two sisters ages 16 and 17 at the time they were employed by inappropriate touching as well as egregious verbal comments.

-$200,000 paid to two employees of a steakhouse for the sexual harassment they were subjected to at the hands of an assistant manager.

Sexual Harassment is defined as unwelcome sexual advances and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when:

• Submission to the conduct is either an explicit or implicit term or condition of employment.

• Submission to or rejection of the conduct is used as a basis for any employment related decision effecting the person who rejected or submitted to the conduct.

• The conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with the person’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive work environment.

Sexual Harassment is no joke.  Companies have found themselves in hot water because of off-color jokes told in the workplace as well as using demeaning language, such as “honey,” “sweetheart” and “cutie.”

As a business attorney, I know first hand how important it is for business owners to have basic information and tools they need in order to meet their responsibilities under state and federal laws, to help inform their employees of what is expected of them and to provide employees with the necessary company policies employees are required to follow to be successful in their jobs.  Attorney written employee policies are vital to inform employees of the conduct that will not be tolerated by an employer, in defending a business against employee accusations and in protecting their business in government investigations of alleged wrongdoing.

Whether you personally or your company is accused of violating state or federal laws, and regardless of the size of your business, every company should adopt a sexual harassment policy under which adherence by all supervisors, managers and employees is required.  Many of these policies provide for disciplinary action, including termination of employment, where sexual harassment is established.

For many years I have urged business owners to have an effective Employee Handbook Company Policy Manual customized for the state in which the business operates. As business owners are required to be compliant with federal and state laws, business owners must know exactly what the laws expect of them.  Likewise, in order for an employer to hold an employee accountable for the employee’s actions or failure to act, a business owner must provide information to their employees in a clearly written and documented fashion.    A properly attorney prepared Employee Handbook Company Policy Manual that meets both federal and your state’s specific laws is vital to accomplishing this key business practice.

From the employee’s perspective, an Employee Handbook Company Policy Manual serves two key purposes.  First, the Employee Manual informs employees of your company’s standards of acceptable behavior that are presented clearly in professionally written employee policies customized to meet federal law and the law of your state.  Secondly, by reading each employee policy, the employee knows what you expect from the employee for successful employment in your company.

In today’s workplace environment, many employees are more familiar and comfortable speaking, reading and understanding Spanish rather than English.   A best practice is to have a Spanish Employee Handbook Company Policy Manual available for these employees.  Keep in mind, as an employer you want employees to understand the “rules of the road” to becoming effective and valuable employees.  If an employee cannot understand the language the “rules” are written in, it will be difficult to communicate what management expects, and difficult to hold them accountable.

Your business is taking care of business, and not the practice of law.  The information in this article should not be used as legal advice. No attorney-client relationship exists with the author because of your reading this article or sending and receiving e-mails.  Should you have specific legal issues, you should contact a Business Law attorney in your area.