This week, you have received the following email from a friend of yours, Helen Mayer. Helen is the owner of a local eco-friendly toy store, EcoGioco. There are two locations now open and each store employs 22 employees. You help Helen with her HR and employee issues in your spare time. She doesn’t have enough legal-related issues to justify hiring a full-time HR professional but does need guidance on what to do to comply with the state and federal laws regarding employment.

Your assignment is to explain to Helen how you would draft the new provision for the EcoGioco employee handbook as requested by Helen. Remember that when you research and write the provision, you must refer to both federal law and state law for the state in which you live. If you write the provision to conform to the requirements of a law, you must include a cite to the law (URL link). Your response to Helen should include not just your suggested provision but also an explanation of why you are suggesting that the company include the provision.

Your final answer must explain in a maximum five-minute presentation on Powerpoint your response to Helen and the reasoning behind your provision.

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From: Helen Mayer (h.mayer@ecogioco.com)
To: HR Manager
Date: March 15, 2013 09:43
Re: Employee Handbook Provision: Sick Leave/PTO

Hi there!

You know that I am always seeking out your help when I have some questions about employment law matters here at work, and today is no exception! I have decided that I would like to include in my employee handbook a provision for paid sick leave. Right now, I have been using an employee handbook that I found on a website, legaldepot.com. I found it before we started working together. I think the handbook is good, but you would certainly know better than me since you work in HR!

The problem with this handbook is that there is no provision for sick leave, maternity leave or personal leave. I want to change that. As you know, we now have 22 employees at each of our locations and it is about time that we offer more generous leave so that we can hire and retain quality employees. We have had problems recently with a turnover.

I want you to recommend to me whether I should offer paid or unpaid leave. Should I offer sick leave and then personal time off or vacation? How much time should I offer? I have heard that some companies have three months off when employees are ill. Should I offer that?

I would also like to have a “use it or lose it” policy, in other words, if my employees get a certain number of vacation days and they don’t use them, they don’t carry over to the next year. Also, I remember my husband, Dave, left his job a few years ago and he was able to get a cash pay-out for the unused vacation time that he had left and hadn’t used. It was a lot of money! I don’t want that to happen, so can I say that employees cannot receive payment for unused vacation time when they leave their job or are fired?

Thanks so much for your help, as always. Are you free for lunch next Tuesday? I’d love to take you out as a thank you for all the work you do for me and my business. Let me know!

Helen

Helen Mayer
President, EcoGioco, Inc.
1550 Western Boulevard
Minneapolis, MN 55001
612-700-9110

Eco-Friendly and Kid-Friendly Toys for Kids of All Ages