Should our policy handbook prohibit gambling and immoral conduct? 01-01-00
I am in the process of re-vamping our outdated policy manual. I am working on the Standards of Conduct. We hit a major stalemate on conducting a lottery or gambling on company premises since management has run a sports pool for years. The social environment has changed from a company of approximately 20 employees of which more than 1/2 were management to over 50 employees where more than 1/2 are production workers.
Also, we had an issue with the words "immoral conduct". Could you give me a legal definition that would provide some clarity. What may be immoral to one person may not necessarily be immoral to another.
Rita Risser's response:
In every state of the union except Nevada, gambling is illegal. Therefore, this should not be an issue anywhere except in your state. In fact, many companies prohibit gambling, but then members of management gamble. This is the worst of all possible worlds. Better to be silent on gambling than to have management flagrantly violating company rules.
In your case, I think you could handle gambling just like other companies handle solicitations for charities. Most companies prohibit soliciting, except for management-supported charities such as United Way. In your case, you could say that only management-sanctioned gambling is allowed.
From a productivity perspective, one might question the wisdom of gambling
during work time, but from a legal perspective, there does not appear to be a problem.
I do not recommend prohibiting immoral conduct. As you point out, different people have different definitions of immoral. Some people think that gambling is immoral! In addition, it is illegal to invade employees' privacy. How will you know that they are engaging in immoral conduct? Even if it is publicized (let's say they have sex on the internet) what does that have to do with work? You can't punish people at work for what they do in their private life, even if their private life is public. (One exception -- if the CEO or other high-ranking or highly visible officer does something privately that brings disrepute upon the company, the company can terminate their employment.)
I do recommend a catch-all phrase prohibiting "other conduct that affects the legitimate business interests of the company."
As always, be sure to have your final draft reviewed by a local attorney to ensure that all laws are followed.
