Employee handbooks are they contracts?

When is a Handbook a Contract

Under Ohio law, an employee handbook certainly can create a contractual relationship between an employer and an employee. In other words, handbooks can create obligations on the part of the employer to employ you for a specific period unless the employer has just cause to terminate your employment before that period ends. Whether your handbook created a contract between you and your employer depends on the particular language in the handbook.

In Ohio, employment is presumed to be at-will unless evidence to the contrary exists. At-will employment means that the relationship can be terminated by either side for any reason at any time. Contrary evidence must show an agreement that the employment will last for a specific, limited period. A handbook that contains such a promise will be evidence contrary to an at-will employmnet relationship and create a contractual relationship between the employer and employee.

Such promises are often expressed or implied in handbooks containing progressive discipline policies and probationary period policies. These are not the only sections of a handbook that contain promises of continued employment, but they are the most common.

Most employers include language in the disipline and probation policies that reserve to the emploer the discretion to terminate the employment relationship at anny time. If your handbook contains any such reservation for your employer, then the handbook probably does not create any contractual rights for you. If, however, the employer has failed to reserve that right and has indicated that you have certain rights to progressive discipline, a contractual promise can exist.

An employer, however, can still draft a handbook to prevent changing the at-will employment relationship. Even if the handbook contains provisions that might be read to imply a promise of continued employment for a specific duration, the employer can protect the at-will relationship by including an approporiate disclaimer in the handbook. These disclaimers are usually obvious and contain express reference to the at-will employment relationship. Typically, the disclaimer appears at the beginning or end of the handbook, and often employers require their employees to sign a form acknowledging receipt of the handbook and the at-will emplolymnet disclaimer.

As you can see, your question requires a fact intesive review of your handbook and circumstances to know with certainty whether you are an employee at-will or whether your employer was obligated to follow certain disciplinary procedures before terminating your employment. This answer probably does not give you the direct response you seek, but it should give you enough information about the law to decide whether you want to spend money on a consultation with a lawyer in your area who can review your circumstances in greater detail and give you a direct answer to your question.

posted by Gregory Gordillo  |  Aug 19, 2004 1:29 PM [EST]