End of Year To Do's: Is it Time to Review and Update Your Handbook?

As the end of the year approaches, one priority employers may want to consider in preparing for 2026 is reviewing your company handbook for compliance.

An out-of-date handbook that is not in compliance with new federal and state laws and regulations can present a risk of legal exposure. The company handbook is often one of the first items requested by state and government agencies when they are conducting audits, and one of the first pieces of evidence sought in preparation for an employee filing a lawsuit.

Over the past few years, both state and federal laws have changed rapidly. This includes the passage of the federal Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), the federal PUMP Act, the federal Speak Out Act, the expansion of Connecticut’s Sick Day law, the creation of new protected classes under the Connecticut Fair Employment Practices Act, and more. In addition, as workforces increase in numbers, businesses may become subject to additional legal requirements.     

In addition to ensuring legal compliance, handbooks can be important for reflecting the actual policies, procedures, and expectations of the company. Workplaces necessarily evolve over time and handbooks should be updated to reflect these changes. Businesses should consider handbooks to be dynamic documents that change as the business evolves. 

The following are some considerations for what your handbook should include:

• Disclaimer language stipulating that the handbook is not an employment contract or guarantee of any benefit and that the employer has the right to amend the handbook without prior notice;

• Clear at-will employment language;

• Eliminating contradictions to your employment-at-will status in your handbook (e.g. at-will: you may be terminated at any time and progressive discipline: we can only terminate you after prior warnings have been given);

• A thorough equal employment opportunity provision and a complaint procedure and a process for appeal;

• A statement concerning prescription drugs which may impair performance, marijuana, and alcohol;

• A process for an employee to follow seeking accommodations for a disability or some other protected status;

• A clear anti-harassment statement and a process for making a harassment claim;

• A description of the employer’s method of implementing Family and Medical Leave Act rights, including definitions and the selection of the measurement period;

• Identification of eligibility and duration of various leaves of absence;

• An outline of eligibility for vacations and holidays and the effect terminating employment will have on pay outs of unused time;

• A clear statement concerning expectations of privacy and your right to search;

• Clear descriptions of payroll practices, including overtime (e.g. mandatory or voluntary; after 8 hours or after 40 hours), premium pay, and increases;

• A clear description of time-keeping practices;

• Your position on work-from-home;

• A clear description of welfare and retirement benefits, including eligibility and references to plan documents, as appropriate;

• Identification of clear and defensible work rules; and

• A clear process for resolving disputes.

Let it Snow: Issues with Inclement Weather

Employee Pay and Inclement Weather

With winter and winter weather comes the questions concerning whether and how employees should be paid for the time lost if the company closes. As a practical matter, of course, fewer employers are closing during snow storms, but are instead remaining open and permitting employees to make their own decisions on coming in. However, there are those occasions where companies do close-and the questions concerning pay inevitably arise. The following may provide some helpful guidance:

Exempt Employees

With limited exceptions, the general rule is an exempt employee who works any portion of a work week is entitled to be paid for the entire week. An exempt employee who has not worked at all during the week is not entitled to payment. But, when it comes to weather-related closings, the law on paying exempts makes a distinction between a company closure due to the employer deciding to close the office due to inclement weather and an employer that closes the office because the government has closed the roads. 

Where the employer decides to close the office for the day due to weather, the company is required to pay their exempts if they have worked any portion of the work week. In contrast, where the company closes the office because of state or local travel bans, employers are not required to pay exempts for the days the office is closed due to those travel bans. 

Employers though must be mindful of three areas related to the application of this rule:

• First, be mindful of the matter of defining work. If an exempt employee is at home using the computer, e-mail, voicemail and computers to work remotely, even though not performing services at the company, this may nonetheless constitute work performed during the week.

  
  

• Second, be mindful of what you may have stated when hiring the employee. If an offer letter or employment contract states, for example, “we will pay you a salary of $50,000 per year,” an employee may claim breach of the agreement – that you not paying the $1,000 during the non-work week is a violation of your agreement.

  
  

• Third, consider what is the appropriate business decision based employee relations. If you expect your exempt staff to routinely work overtime, your not paying for the snow day may result in an exempt employee being less willing to work extra hours later on.

  
  

Non-Exempt (Hourly) Employees

Hourly employees get paid for the time that they have actually worked. Snow fall, hurricanes, flooding, etc. does not create the obligation to pay hourly employees. Of course, a contract or company policy may operate to provide payment, but payment is not a legal obligation otherwise.

Using Paid Time Off (PTO) or Vacation Time

Many employers will provide hourly employees with the option to use their vacation time or PTO to make up for lost wages in the event of company closure due to inclement weather. Employers may require employees to use their PTO or vacation time if it is in accordance with those policies. Note that employers in Connecticut may change their benefit policies at their discretion, but must notify the employees affected by the change in writing either by a posted notice or by memorandum to each employee affected.

More employers now keep the company open when it snows. Advise employees to use their judgment about coming in or staying out with the option (or requirement) to use PTO. Some companies do not count the snow day as an absence in their attendance control policies.

Other Pay Situations

Inclement weather may also necessitate certain employees, such as employees responsible for snow plowing, to be “on call” or be unexpectedly called back in. Consider the following:

On-Call Time

Where an employee is required to remain on the employer’s premises even if work isn’t being performed, or so close to the workplace that the employee cannot use the time effectively for his/her own purposes, the employee is considered working. But, an employee who is required to remain on call at home, or who is allowed to leave a message where he/she can be reached, is not working and not paid (in most cases) while on call.

Consider the following example:

• An apartment maintenance worker has to carry a cell phone while on call and must remain within a specified number of miles of the apartment complex in the event he is needed to plow. The on-call time is considered hours worked.

  
  

Employees Who are Not on Call, But are Unexpectedly Called Back

When an employee is not required by his employer to be on call but is contacted by the employer and given a work assignment in that contact, working time begins when the employee is notified of his/her assignment and ends when the employee completes the assignment. If on the other hand, an employee is told to come in, but there is no assignment of the tasks, the employee is to be paid after arriving and being given his/her assignment.

Consider the following example:

• There’s a snowstorm; the supervisor of the Public Works Department contacts employees in his department by telephone and they are just told to “come in.” There are a variety of job assignments that will need to be completed by those employees who are available to come in. Employees are verbally told their assignments at the time they report in. Their hours-worked begins after they have come in and have been told of their assignments and ends when the assignments are completed. Note, in union workplaces the union contract may require employees to be paid a minimum number of hours in these situations.

  
  

More Bad News for H-1B Employers: Expect Visa Delays/Denials for H-1B and H-4 Applicants Under New State Department Policy

Employers who sponsor employees on H-1B visas should expect longer visa-stamping timelines and increased delays and denials of H-1B visas under a sweeping new social media vetting requirement rolled out by the U.S. State Department. Effective December 15, 2025, the State Department will begin conducting an “online presence review” for H-1B applicants and their dependents (H-4 applicants) at U.S. Consulates in their home countries. This includes reviewing applicants’ public social media accounts and activity, LinkedIn and other professional profiles for consistency with petition details, and publicly available information that may reflect on eligibility or admissibility.

Applicants (and their spouses and children) must allow consular officers to view publicly accessible posts, photos, comments, connections, and biographies across declared platforms. Applicants are instructed to set all social media profiles public beginning December 15, 2025, and failure to do so may result in a negative inference. In some circumstances, the absence of an online presence may also be viewed negatively.

According to the announcement, consular officers may review:

• Public posts, comments, photos, affiliations, and other online content across platforms and websites such as X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, etc. 

  
  

• LinkedIn and other professional profiles for consistency with petition details (e.g., job title, employer, dates, duties).

  
  

• Indicators of concern, including hostility toward the U.S., support for terrorism, unlawful antisemitic harassment/violence, potential efforts to steal technical information or exploit U.S. research, or a history of political activism likely to continue in the United States.

  
  

A recently leaked internal directive from the State Department also suggests those working in tech will receive particular scrutiny. Consular officers are instructed to "thoroughly explore" the work histories of applicants, both new and returning, by reviewing their resumes, LinkedIn profiles, and appearances in media articles for activities including combatting misinformation, disinformation or false narratives, fact-checking, content moderation, compliance, and trust and safety.

The new policy follows a series of federal actions designed to crack down on the use of H-1B visas. These actions include increasing the fee for H-1B visas to $100,000, proposing a rule to replace the random H-1B lottery system with a weighted wage-based process for selecting recipients, and a U.S. Department of Labor initiative targeting wage, placement, and discrimination violations related to H-1B hiring.