04-06-2008
Staff Handbook
In the case of Christopher Harlow –v- Artimus International Corporation the Queen’s Bench has made a ruling in relation to Staff Handbooks and what terms in Staff Handbooks are contractual. This particular case concerned a Redundancy Enhancement Policy (not contractual term) that was within a Staff Handbook along with terms such as sick pay, holiday pay etc.
Clearly normally, the Staff Handbook would be reserved for non-contractual terms but in this case this was not so and the Court ruled that the contractual Redundancy Enhancement was appropriate for incorporating into the contract, and was stored with other terms that were contractual and therefore, as all staff knew about the enhancement and expected it, it could be incorporated into the contract through customer practice.
This raises an interesting concern for those companies that have deliberately used Staff Handbooks to contain terms that they did not want to have contractual effect. This case means there is no guarantee that by putting something in a Staff Handbook you cannot have it incorporated in to the contract unless the Staff Handbook is very carefully drafted and those sections that should be in a contract normally are kept in there rather than being placed into the Handbook.
Clearly normally, the Staff Handbook would be reserved for non-contractual terms but in this case this was not so and the Court ruled that the contractual Redundancy Enhancement was appropriate for incorporating into the contract, and was stored with other terms that were contractual and therefore, as all staff knew about the enhancement and expected it, it could be incorporated into the contract through customer practice.
This raises an interesting concern for those companies that have deliberately used Staff Handbooks to contain terms that they did not want to have contractual effect. This case means there is no guarantee that by putting something in a Staff Handbook you cannot have it incorporated in to the contract unless the Staff Handbook is very carefully drafted and those sections that should be in a contract normally are kept in there rather than being placed into the Handbook.
