North Carolina is an "at will" employment state. That means that employers have much more discretion in the reasons for which the company can let employees go, and in various policies related to employees.
But just because North Carolina is an "at will" state does not mean that employers are not subject to a body of federal and state laws that are designed to protect employees.
In the last column, we discussed some of the main ones under federal and state law concerning overtime and workers' compensation.
There are some federal laws that apply to companies with a larger employee base. Special rules can affect how the number of employees is counted if you have employees in more than one location.
If your company has 50 or more employees, you are subject to the Federal Family Medical Leave Act. This act prescribes various remedies available to employees when they or certain close family members have significant medical issues.
If you have 20 or more employees, you are subject to age-discrimination laws and remedies.
With 15 or more, your company is subject to laws relating to discrimination involving race, gender, national origin, sexual harassment, and acts of retaliation relating to any of these forms of discrimination.
The Equal Pay Act applies to employers of all sizes.
Various other state laws apply to smaller businesses, in addition to overtime and workers' compensation laws. Specific state statutes prohibit retaliatory acts against an employee who pursues a workers' compensation claim.
Two of the clear objectives for any company should be to maintain legal compliance with all applicable standards, but also to ensure good employee relations. The happier the employees, the more productive they will be.
Here are some best practices to ensure good employee relations and to avoid costly and disruptive legal claims:
• Written policies: Adopt well-formulated and clearly written employee policies and procedures, and update them regularly.
• Access to policies by employees: Make policies and procedures easily available to employees.
• Training: Train managers in good recruiting, interviewing and selection techniques and best practices for managing a diverse workforce.
• Written reviews: Conduct written performance reviews at least annually.
• Document performance: Between performance reviews, document instances of especially good performance and poor performance.
• Employee feedback: Provide employees frequent feedback regarding their work. And ask employees to give feedback to managers.
When an employee is let go for cause in this challenging economy, expect a potential claim. Make sure that your cause is documented.
Mike Wells is an attorney with Wells Jenkins Lucas & Jenkins, PLLC, in Winston-Salem.
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