Employee Handbook Advice on Benefits and Termination - PDF

THE EMPLOYEE SHOULD BE GIVEN A COPY It is a good idea to give the employee a copy of the documentation. Giving the employee a copy will ensure that the employee is on notice of what is wrong and what must be changed. And, when possible, obtain the employee's signature or acknowledgment upon receipt...

THE EMPLOYEE SHOULD BE GIVEN A COPY It is a good idea to give the employee a copy of the documentation. Giving the employee a copy will ensure that the employee is on notice of what is wrong and what must be changed. And, when possible, obtain the employee's signature or acknowledgment upon receipt of the copy. If the employee disagrees with the substance of the documentation, this acknowledgment provides the employee with the opportunity to express his or her disagreement, but the acknowledgment is proof that the employee received notice. 28 Benefits SUPERVISORS SHOULDN'T GIVE ADVICE ON BENEFIT QUESTIONS The best advice a manager or supervisor can give an employee regarding benefits and termination is no advice at all. There is an enormous potential for well-meaning comments about benefits made by a supervisor to lead to litigation. Although the law requires employee benefit plans to be in writing, the meaning of ambiguous written provisions can be modified based on statements made by company officials. That means that if a plan does not precisely spell out what will happen in a given termination situation, and the supervisor, in answering an employee's question, interprets the plan to provide benefits where none were intended, the employer could end up being sued for not paying benefits. The answer to questions like "Will I get severance pay (and how much) if the company is sold and I continue to work for the new owner?" or "Will my health insurance coverage continue while I look for a new job after this worksite closes?" should be either "Consult your employee handbook" (or wherever the information is posted; for example, on the company intranet site) or "See the benefits administrator." The handbook and the benefits administrator should be the only sources of communication regarding benefits issues. TELL EMPLOYEES TO CHECK BENEFIT PLAN DOCUMENTS Senior management's role is to make sure that the company's termination policy and benefit plan documents are properly drafted. The supervisor's job is to make all employees aware of the existence of those policies and where to get accurate information. The supervisor should be able to say with confidence: "That question is addressed in the benefits information on the company intranet site" or "You should ask the benefits administrator." This will avoid putting the supervisor on the spot to answer questions and avoid having the supervisor interpret the plan. WHAT CAN GO WRONG WITH SUPERVISOR BENEFIT STATEMENTS Here is an example of what can go wrong when a well-meaning supervisor attempts to interpret a benefit plan: Company A has decided to sell one of its divisions. A buyer has been found that is going to hire all of the Company A employees. The Company A severance policy contains words that can be interpreted in different ways. It states that any employee who is terminated for reasons other than cause will get one week's pay for every year of service with the company. What does that mean? It can be read to mean that the employees will be entitled to severance pay since they are being terminated by Company A and will work for the buyer. At the same time, it can just as easily be argued that no severance pay is required since the employees are not losing their jobs when the buyer agrees to immediately hire them. In addition to the ambiguously worded plan, Company A has not designated someone to discuss benefits with employees. After learning of the sale, employees start asking their supervisors whether they will get severance pay as a result of changing employers. Several employees go to the plant 29