Employment Policy Manual Information Required In Ontario

An Employment Policy Manual or Employee Handbook should contain clear explanations

of all of the general workplace issues or terms and conditions of employment that apply to all, or most, of your employees - everything from the accuracy and completeness of information provided by employees for their personnel files to the policies related to leaves of absence and vacation entitlement.

Many issues related to employment practices are prescribed by legislation and/or common law. Some of my clients have suggested that, if a policy is covered by legislation, it need not be included in the Manual. My preference is usually to include even the most obvious, legislation driven policies. For example, a simple statement that your business will only hire workers who are legally eligible to work in this country will demonstrate that your organization will conform to all legally mandated guidelines. Keep in mind that legislation dictates a baseline below which you cannot legally operate. Many employers choose to operate well above that legislated baseline.

There will be some issues covered in the Manual that may not apply to some employees. For example, if you were to hire a new middle manager who has a significant number of years of experience and has left a position that gave him or her 5 or 6 weeks of vacation, that employee would probably negotiate a vacation entitlement that would conflict with the policy statement in the Employment Policy Manual.

To deal with cases like this, you should have a policy related to Employment Contracts. The statement would simply affirm that, where an employment contract differs from any policies described in the Employment Policy Manual, the terms of employment described in the contract would take precedence. Otherwise, the employee would be bound by the policies in the Employment Policy Manual.

by: Jim S. White

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