Legal Question in Employment Law in Pennsylvania

Re: company policies

Nothing. Policies and handbooks are disfavored ways of alleging that an express contract exists between employer and employee.

Sometimes an estoppel is worked so that an Employer who says one thing in the handbook is later prevented from denying its content.

The fact that unilateral changes can be made at any time with or without additional consideration can be a problem; it's really not the product of an exchange of ideas - just dictated terms by a dictator.

Pennsylvania laws are better than many states', but there is still little protection afforded by handbooks.

Sometimes, an intelligent Judge will realize that contracts may be implied-in-fact or implied-in-law, as in the case of a quasi-contract. Such quasi-contracts substitute for an actual, expressed, contract. Theses issues sometimes crop up in wrongful termination litigation.

If you want protection from cavalier Employer treatment, you will need a written contract or a union collective bargaining agreement. Then you will have actual, and not illusory, protection that any Judge would recognize.

Good Luck.

TV