Election Day is Coming- Is Your Business Ready?

Do your employees know your rules or expectations of them on this coming Election Day? If you already have a documented policy in your Employee Handbook that is awesome! This would be a great time to send out an email to remind them of their rights and your expectations in advance (some states require you post this) and to ensure your managers and supervisors, etc. are informed.

If you don’t have a policy it is not too late to create one or to communicate to employees about time off for voting. Here are some general rules of thumb to follow:

· Laws vary by state and local ordinances but most protect an employee’s rights to take time off to perform civic duties like voting and jury duty. Here are some details for Voting and Time Off in Texas.

· It is unlawful to prohibit someone from voting and it should be without threats, intimidation, or other penalty.

· Let employees have at least 2 consecutive hours off to vote on election day if they haven’t already voted

· Time off to vote does not need to be paid if the 2 consecutive hours are available outside of normal working hours that the polls are open.

· Don’t dock an Exempt employee for voting. This is never a good practice and could have serious implications.

· Don’t ask your employees how they voted or retaliate against them for voting in a certain way or refusing to share who they voted for. I am sure you would not do this but are you certain none of your managers would?

· In most states you can request that employees request time off to vote in advance. But that expectation would need to be in writing, applied consistently of all employees, and communicated ahead of time. This is true of most good policies.

Hope this helps and let me know if I can be a resource on these or other employment laws and policies!