Maryland, Virginia, and District of Columbia Employee Handbook Attorneys

Handbooks are critical communication tools. They outline for employees what they can expect as employees and what the company expects of them during the course of their employment.

Additionally, an employee handbook may be a place where employers are required by law to provide certain notices to employees or where the employer will need to put policies that the law mandates employers put in writing.

Lerch Early’s attorneys work with our clients to ensure that their handbooks and the policies and benefits described in them comply with the law, are consistent with the company or organization’s culture, represent best practices for the company, and are useful tools that employees will actually be able to easily navigate and understand.

Key Features of an Employee Handbook

A handbook is not an employment contract (and should clearly and unambiguously state as such throughout the document), but rather, it should serve as a resource for employees to help them understand the benefits and policies that will govern their day-to-day work.

That said, a handbook should also reserve the employer’s ability to change the policies and benefits at its discretion. Crafting a compliant, well-designed, and useful handbook requires the experience and knowledge of a seasoned employment law attorney, and Lerch Early’s attorneys are just the right attorneys for the job.

Why Legal Insights from Employment Attorneys are Key for Employee Handbooks

Any online search (or foray into AI) will generate countless sample handbooks and policies. So why do you need an experienced employment law attorney to assist with your handbook?

Simply having employees is a highly regulated area of law  – the policies that should (and should not) be included in an employee handbook depend on a number of factors including the jurisdiction where the business or organization is located, the locations where the business’s employees work from, how many employees the business has, what industry the business is in, and whether there are remote workers.

While sample policies may look good on their face, our experienced employment attorneys can help determine which policies are the right fit for your handbook and help avoid the legal risks of having a handbook with missing policies or policies that are unlawful or inapplicable to the specific entity and its employees, particularly when employees are located in other counties and states.

Work with a Maryland Employee Handbook Attorney

Contact a Lerch, Early & Brewer employment attorney if you are considering updating your employee handbook, need one reviewed, or for any other related needs.

Success Stories

Resolution of Davis-Bacon Claim

Challenge

The U.S. Department of Labor alleged that one of our government contracting clients had not paid its workers the wages mandated under the Davis-Bacon Act, which requires contractors and subcontractors performing work on federal or District of Columbia contracts to pay the local prevailing wage for the type of work being performed.

Strategy

We helped our client to identify the work that was performed on the project and to explain to the DOL investigator why the classifications listed in the applicable wage determination did not apply to this work. We assisted our client to prepare and submit a conformance request to DOL to obtain wage and fringe benefit rates that was appropriate for the work that our client performed. Not only were these rates more in line with the prevailing wage rates for this type of work in the area, they were also substantially lower than the rates the DOL investigator had initially selected. We then assembled a complete package that documented all wages paid and fringe benefits (health insurance, paid leave, vehicle and cell phone allowances) provided by our client to its workers on this project. By including the fringe benefits we were able to further reduce the amount of back pay owed by the client to its workers.

Result

We negotiated an agreement between our client and the DOL on back wages that was more than a 90% reduction from the original back wages demand made by DOL.

Insights