Work Rules .

Specific activities, practices, or forms of behavior that are expressly

forbidden; and second, to spell out exactly what steps will be taken when
work rules are violated.
As employers design their work rules, there are legal issues to be
considered.

 Recording time worked. It is usually forbidden for employees to

punch in or out for each other.
 Unreported absences. If an employee is absent for 3 consecutive
days without reporting in, it is customary to take disciplinary action.
This topic may also relate to your job abandonment policy.
 Leaving early. If an employee leaves early, without authorization,
normally some disciplinary action is taken. Again, this topic may
relate to your job abandonment policy.
 Excessive tardiness.
 Theft of company or personal property.
 Damaging or defacing company property.
 Alcohol or drug abuse. This usually includes possession of these
substances on work premises and being under the influence of
alcohol or drugs during working hours.
 Gambling.
 Fighting, wrestling, or roughhousing on company property.
 Insubordination.
 Using profane or obscene language.
 Sexual harassment or harassment. Employers may combine
this topic with profane or obscene language. Usually, this topic
forbids pornographic material, obscene jokes, and offensive
comments about appearance, offensive grabbing, racial slurs and
the like.
 Offensive or disruptive apparel/items. Again, this issue may be
combined with profanity and obscenity. Normally, this rule forbids
offensive T-shirts, gang regalia, rebel flags, graphic pictures or
aborted fetuses.
 Unlawful discrimination. Unlawful discrimination can include
harassment, race discrimination, age discrimination, pregnancy
discrimination, disability discrimination, and other forms of
discrimination. Employers may want to use this item as an overall
policy and then emphasize subsets of discrimination, such as
harassment.

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Business & Legal Reports, Inc. 10028300
  Failure to cooperate with an investigation. This work rule may
stand alone or may be part of an unlawful discrimination policy.
 Lying to management.
 Falsifying company records or reports.
 Loitering or deliberately taking more time than it should to
complete a job assignment.
 Sleeping on the job.
 Conducting personal business during working hours.
 Horseplay or any other form of disorderly conduct.
 Violation of safety or fire-prevention rules.
 Failure or refusal to wear protective equipment.
 Possession of a dangerous weapon on company premises.
 Contraband. Contraband can include weapons, licensed hand
guns, drug paraphernalia, and pornographic material. It may be a
separate item or it may be included within another category.
 Smoking only in posted outdoor areas.
 Appearance. If employees have contact with the public, and you
want to avoid “extreme dress” you may want to include appearance
in your work rules. For example, you may want to ban nose rings,
purple hair, or shaved heads.
 Eating in certain restricted areas.
 Unauthorized use of company tools or equipment.
 Disclosure of confidential information.
 Conflict of interest. This issue may need to be explained. For
example, it may be acceptable for a cook at a restaurant to take a
second job as a cook at a restaurant 5 miles away, but not
acceptable for a manager to do so.
 Solicitation. This is usually covered in a separate policy
statement but can be included here.
Link the Work Rules policy to your policy on discipline. You may want to
refer your readers to your policy on disciplinary procedures in connection
with work-rule violations.

Legal Points
 Discrimination. To aid your company when it is accused of
unlawful discrimination, you may want to include in your work rules
a ban on unlawful discrimination and provide for discipline if an
employee fails or refuses to cooperate with any investigation of
unlawful discrimination.

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Business & Legal Reports, Inc. 10028300
  Privacy. As you draft your work rules, you should consider
whether there is any potential for invading the privacy of the
employee. For example, a ban on smoking in the workplace may
be lawful, but telling employees they can not smoke off the job may
be unlawful. If you are a public employer, the constitution may limit
what you can place in your work rules. For example, one court
said it was wrong for the fire department to tell a firefighter he could
not read Playboy when off duty but still at the firehouse.
 Solicitation. The rules governing solicitation should be regularly
reviewed, as the courts and the National Labor Relations Board at
times have changed their interpretation of the words to use to
describe this policy.
 Employment at will. Care should be taken that your work rules
and disciplinary policy do not create a contract if you want to
maintain an employment-at-will relationship.
 Disputes. Some employers are now adopting arbitration as a
mechanism for resolving disputes with employees. If you decide to
implement an arbitration policy, you will need to decide whether all
work rule disputes, or just some, are to be settled by arbitration.
For example, you might want only to use arbitration for violations of
work rules that lead to discharge rather than for a violation which
leads to a demotion or the delay of a pay increase.
 Licensed guns. You need to learn whether state or local law
permits you to ban licensed handguns from the work facility,
property, and/or vehicles in the parking lot. You also need to
consider the liability if you do not ban licensed guns and the liability
if you do ban licensed guns.
 Confidential information. You should consider whether you need
to define confidential information in your policy. You should also
make certain that the company has taken practical steps to
safeguard confidential information, e.g., store in locked file
cabinets, label as confidential, restrict access, etc.
 Changes. When you make a change in your work rules, take
practical steps to ensure you can prove employees knew of the
rule change before you discipline the employee for violating it.
Further, determine whether your state requires an employer to
make changes in a certain manner in order to enforce them, e.g., a
written notice to employees of the change coupled with the
statement that the employee has accepted the change if he or she
continues to work after the rule goes into effect.

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  Legal review. Set up a routine (e.g., an annual, semiannual, etc.)
legal review of your work rules and other policies, even if you are
not changing them, and certainly obtain legal advice before
implementing a new rule. Like the rest of the material in this
publication, the points here are a starting place for your discussion,
are not legal advice, and are not to be used as a substitute for
advice from an attorney. Federal, state, and local laws change,
and courts and other government bodies change their
interpretations of them.

Company Rules of Conduct and Discipline : Strict Policy

The following rules of conduct are hereby established and apply to all
hourly paid employees:

Actions that are grounds for discharge:

1. Theft of company property or the property of an individual in plant,

offices, or premises of the company
2. Purposely punching in or out any time card other than one’s own
3. Obtaining employment on the basis of false or misleading
statements
4. Absence for 3 consecutive working days without reporting
satisfactory reason
5. Unlawful discrimination, including, but not limited to, racial slurs,
sexual harassment, and national origin jokes
6. Improper disclosure of confidential information
7. Lying to a manager
8. Intoxication

Actions that may be punished by immediate discharge or by lesser

penalties, depending on individual circumstances such as seriousness of
the offense, previous record of the employee, etc.

1. Unauthorized possession, willful destruction or defacement of

company property or property of any individual in plant, offices, or
premises of the company
2. Insubordination or use of abusive, threatening, or obscene
language

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 3. Disorderly conduct of any kind in plant, offices, or on company
premises, such as fighting, wrestling, running, roughhousing, or
any other activity dangerous to life, limb, or property
4. Violation of general safety and security rules or fire prevention
rules
5. Gambling or promoting sports pools, etc., on company premises
6. Consumption of liquor or drugs or being under the influence of
liquor or drugs while on company premises or bringing liquor or
drugs into the plant or offices
7. Performing personal business during working hours and/or on
company premises such as selling or peddling articles
8. Soliciting, collecting funds, engaging in propaganda or organizing
activities, distributing pamphlets or other reading materials, posting
notices or published articles on company bulletin boards or
premises without proper authorization from management
9. Smoking in the plant or offices except at designated outdoor
smoking areas
10. Violation of cleanliness and good housekeeping rules at drinking
fountains, in washrooms, and elsewhere on the premises, including
such actions as eating outside of the lunchroom, spitting,
disposition of refuse, etc.
11. Loafing, lounging, or sleeping in washrooms, etc., or visiting other
departments without permission
12. Dressing or cleaning up on company time without permission or
lining up at time clocks before time to punch out
13. Possession of a camera or other photographic equipment on
company premises or sketching company property without proper
authorization
14. Possession and use of a personal radio on company premises
without authorization of the Human Resources department
15. Habitual tardiness or chronic absenteeism
16. Allowing a visitor in your custody to enter a restricted area or to
violate any company rule
17. Willful violation of any other plant or departmental rules
18. Leaving early without authorization
19. Possession of a gun or other weapon or contraband
20. Wearing unacceptable items
21. Violation of conflict of interest policy
22. Any other act detrimental to the interests of the company or its
employees

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Business & Legal Reports, Inc. 10028300
 Like all other policies, these work rules are guidelines and do not create
a contract of employment for any specific amount of time. As always,
you have the right to terminate your employment at any time, with or
without reason, and the company maintains the same right.

Work Rules Standard Policy

The following offenses are grounds for disciplinary action ranging from
reprimand to discharge depending on the seriousness of the matter:
1. Theft of property belonging to other employees, the company, our
customers, or vendors
2. Being under the influence of, or possessing, intoxicants, or
narcotics on company property
3. Horseplay, running, fighting—or agitating any others to fight
4. Disorderly conduct or the use of foul or abusive language in the
plant
5. Gambling or conducting a lottery in the plant
6. Deliberately or negligently damaging property, tools, or machines
belonging to the company
7. Misrepresenting or withholding information on the employment
application or on company records
8. Leaving a department or the plant during working hours without
permission
9. Disregard of safety rules or of common safety and sanitary
practices
10. Insubordination or refusal to follow instructions or to perform
designated work
11. Possession of dangerous weapons on company property
12. Consistently poor workmanship
13. Use of company equipment, machines, or tools without specific
company authorization.
14. Sleeping on the job
15. Failure to report injuries, no matter how slight
16. Punching someone else’s time card or permitting someone else to
punch your time card
17. Excessive absenteeism, lateness, or time away from the work
station
18. Improper disclosure of trade secrets
19. Possession of contraband
20. Harassment
21. Unlawful discrimination
22. Failing to cooperate with any investigation
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 23. Breach of duty of loyalty
24. Lying to a manager
25. Violation of the smoking policy
26. Violation of any policy of which the employee had notice
27. Actions adverse to the company’s interests

Plant Rules : Progressive Policy

The orderly and efficient operation of the plant requires that employees
adhere to disciplinary rules and proper personal standards of conduct at
all times. These rules and standards are necessary to protect the health
and safety of all employees, to maintain uninterrupted production, and to
protect the company’s goodwill and property.

Rules to Obey
To that end, the company sets forth its established plant rules which,
together with all other appropriate standards of conduct, employees are
required to obey.
An employee who fails to maintain at all times proper standards of
conduct or who violates any of the following rules will subject himself to
disciplinary action including discharge.
1. Employees must be at their appointed workplaces, ready to work,
at the regular starting time, and shall remain at such workplaces
and at work until the scheduled regular quitting time.
2. Employees shall not gather on the plant premises or conduct any
personal business during work hours.
3. An employee must, where it is prescribed, wear safety articles and
use protective equipment provided him, at all times, and
immediately report to his supervisor any injury or accident.
4. If an employee is unable to report for, or perform, work due to
illness or other justifiable cause, he must report his expected
absence in advance and give the reasons for his inability to work
either to his supervisor or to the Human Resources office.
—Between 5 p.m. and 8 a.m., call
—Between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., call the Human Resources
department at
—The message must include: (1) name, (2) department, (3) shift,
(4) brief statement for absence (do not say only “sick”), and (5)
expected time of return.
5. An employee must be in a physically fit condition to perform the
work required of him or her.

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Business & Legal Reports, Inc. 10028300
 6. An employee must be available and report for work as scheduled
or for overtime work as required or assigned to him or her.
Prohibited Acts

1. Unlawful or improper conduct off the plant premises or during

nonworking hours that affect the employee’s relationship to his job,
his fellow employees, his supervisors, or to the company’s
products, property, reputation, or goodwill in the community
2. Restricting production or interfering with the performance of other
employees’ jobs, or engaging or participating in any interruption of
work or production
3. Neglecting one’s own job, duties, and responsibilities, or refusing to
perform work assigned
4. Using telephones during working hours for personal calls or
conducting personal business on company premises
5. Littering on company property
6. Bringing firearms or other weapons, intoxicating beverages,
narcotics, or illegal drugs onto company property
7. Falsifying any reports or records, including personnel, absence,
and production records
8. Bringing cameras or photographic equipment onto company
property without written authorization from the Human Resources
department
9. Falsely stating or making claims of injury
10. Violating any safety rule or practice, or engaging in any conduct
which tends to create a safety hazard
11. Removing from the premises, without proper written authorization,
company property, records, or other material
12. Fighting
13. Horseplay
14. Abuse or destruction of company property, tools, or equipment
15. Punching and/or signing any time card or report except one’s own
16. Gambling
17. Disclosure of confidential information without authorization
The foregoing rules, which employees are expected to observe at all
times, are not intended to be all-inclusive of the required discipline,
proper standards of conduct or obligations of employees under the
collective bargaining agreement.

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Business & Legal Reports, Inc. 10028300
 When necessary, the company shall establish additional policies, and
supervisors may set up particular rules to govern employees’ conduct
when deemed necessary by operational requirements.

©2010
Business & Legal Reports, Inc. 10028300