Objective:

This final project should enable students to apply the employment law concepts learned in this course in a realistic employment context. You will utilize the topics discussed in class including the employment relationship, employment at will, the hiring process, performance improvement plans (PIP's), terminations, severance agreements, employment discrimination (ADA, ADEA, Title VII), Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and more to formulate the first draft of a comprehensive Employment Handbook.

Assignment:

You are preparing the first version of an Employment Handbook (for the pretend Company of your choice) that will be reviewed by the Company's outside employment law counsel and, as such, it should be in near-final format. The goal is for the Employment Handbook to be so substantially complete that the Company's outside counsel will have to spend very little time (and more importantly, Company money) on revising it.

However, as you have learned as an M.L.S./M.Jur. student at Texas A&M School of Law, there will be categories that are critically necessary for outside counsel to review for compliance with various federal and state laws. This is why you will turn in an"annotated"draft as your final project.Since it will be sent to outside counsel for review, youmustinclude comments, questions, and other notations to the outside counsel to highlight what you believe is critical for review and questions you need to be answered. You may also wish to note to outside counsel your thoughts on certain provisions and why you included them or drafted them the way that you did. This can be done using comment bubbles or footnotes. Outside counsel will be very interested in your specific thought processes and questions, so this is a critical component of your assignment.

You will create the completed handbook with all of the categories we discussed in our lesson on handbooks (and potentially more based on the industry you choose). You need to critically think about the industry you have chosen and what additional provisions might need to be included in your handbook. For example, are there any specific safety considerations for your particular Company? What dress code, if any, might apply to your Company?

Use of Outside Sources: You will undoubtedly be using outside sources for this project. Please identify any sources from which you adopt provisions, even if you modify the language. For example, if you review three examples on overtime provisions to create your own overtime policy, please provide the examples that were used. This can be done in footnotes, or as an endnote to the document.

Deadline:Upload the Employment Handbook by no later than11:59 PM CT on Wednesday, April 24, 2024.

Format:Use 12-point font size for the actual text of the handbook and it should be single-spaced but with breaks between relevant sections. Be sure tonumber your pagesand tonumber the substantive sectionsof the Employment Handbook. Your name and this course should be at the top of the first page only.

Instructions from Professor Delaney

Follow the general instructions above. By no later than11:59 p.m. CT on Wednesday, April 24, 2024,you must upload the Employment Handbook (carefully proofread, excellent grammar, no typographical errors) in Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx) to the course website. Do not submit a document in any file format other than Microsoft Word format.

While this is the first draft of an initial Employment Handbook, it will be read by others within your Company and outside counsel. You want to ensure it has all of the content where it could be the final version once the attorney has approved the necessary sections and your comments/notes/annotations have been removed.

Follow These Document FormattingRequirements:

1. You should use a font suitable for professional documents in 12-pt size.
2. The Employment Handbook should have one-inch margins on all sides.
3. The Employment Handbook must have page numbers in the lower footer of the document (placement is up to you).
4. You are not required to have a Table of Contents, although it makes the Handbook easy to navigate for outside counsel (Pro tip: do not form your Table of Contents until your document is completely finished).
5. The Employment Handbook must be written in single-spaced paragraphs but also have space between each paragraph.
6. TheEmploymentHandbook must contain, at a minimum, the base categories discussed in our lesson on Handbooks.
7. The Employment Handbook should be easy to navigate and use sections, titles, page numbering, and other headings to make it easy for the reader to understand the content of the Handbook. I suggest you review several examples of handbooks to determine what is most visually pleasing and easy to understand.
8. An Employment Handbook would typically be no more than 30-40 pages, if possible. If it's too long, it will not get the attention it deserves from employees.A reasonableminimumwould be 12 pages. Instead of focusing on length, focus on the key categories we covered in our lesson and add additional provisions that you feel are important to the industry you have chosen. Be thorough as if you were truly preparing a first draft handbook for your chosen Company.