The section below provides an overview of compliance issues and links to two excellent articles that offer practical advice in developing an employee handbook.
 
Compliance Review

While many of the policies and procedures that are included in an employee handbook do not require extensive legal review, there are certain policies that should be drafted with careful consideration to legislative or other legal requirements. For example, drug and alcohol policies and policies dealing with minimum standards of employment must be consistent with legislative enactments, such as human rights and employment standards laws.

Custom Employee Handbooks is aware that the cost of a legal review of an employee handbook can be significant. For this purpose we have retained external legal counsel to conduct a first-level review of our policies. Neither Custom Employee Handbooks nor our legal counsel represent or warrant that all policies are compliant with legal enactments and clients of Custom Employee Handbooks may therefore choose to retain their own legal counsel. The first stage legal review has been conducted.
 
Our Legal Counsel

Custom Handbooks has chosen Christopher J. Edwards, B.A. (Hons.), LL.B. to provide editorial and first-stage legal review for our policies. A graduate of Queen's Law School, Christopher is a partner with one of Ontario's leading employment and insurance defence law firms, Templeman Menninga LLP.

Previously he worked with Canada's largest national law firm. Since his call to the Ontario Bar, he has restricted his practice mainly to management-side labour and employment law. He represents both public and private corporations in Canada and throughout Ontario in the federal sector. Christopher has extensive experience in conducting employee handbook legal reviews for employers. Christopher is a frequent speaker at continuing legal education seminars and is a contributing author to one of Canada's leading employment textbooks Canadian Employment Law published by Canada Law Book Inc. He is also an adjunct professor in the Queen's Executive MBA Program.
 

Articles

1. In Drafting The Employee Handbook , Carol McLean identifies important issues for successfully completing an employee handbook that properly serves the company. This helpful guide includes the following sections:

  • Policies To Include
    - Policies included must relate to defined company objectives
  • Applicable Legislation And Collective Agreements
    – Company policies must meet the minimum requirements of the applicable law
  • Researching The Policies
    – Determine the policies you need and what the policies must contain
  • Do You Need Legal Advice?
    - Certain areas of your handbook may require you to seek legal advice while others may not
  • Corporate Culture And Philosophy
    - A handbook should appropriately reflect corporate culture to support business strategy

2. In Writing The Employee Handbook In Ontario, Alison Dewar provides an overview of matters related to developing and implementing an employee handbook. This article includes information on the practical aspects of drafting an employee handbook, issues to be considered when determining content to be included in an employee handbook and finally, information that will assist in the implementation of an employee handbook. The following sections are discussed:

  • Do You Need An Employee Handbook?
  • Advantages And Disadvantages Of An Employee Handbook
  • Union Versus The Non-Union Workplace
  • Contract Of Employment Versus Employee Handbook

Read Writing The Employee Handbook In Ontario here

 
 
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