Employee Handbook

EMPLOYEE HANDBOOK

State of Georgia

[COMPANY LEGAL NAME]

Effective Date: [MM/DD/YYYY]

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Handbook Status and Administration
2. Equal Employment and Accommodation
3. Wage, Hour, Payday, and Break Policies
4. Family, Medical, Court, Voting, and Company Leave
5. Safety and Workers' Compensation
6. Records, Employment Eligibility, and Protected Activity
7. Conduct, Attendance, and Corrective Action
8. Separation of Employment
9. Administration and Acknowledgment

1. HANDBOOK STATUS AND ADMINISTRATION

1.1 Purpose and Scope

This Handbook states the general policies of [Company Legal Name] (the “Company”) for Employees working in Georgia. It must be completed for the Company's workforce, locations, industry, benefits, and any collective bargaining agreement before distribution.

1.2 Not a Contract; Employment Relationship

This Handbook is not an employment contract, a promise of employment for a fixed term, or a guarantee that any particular corrective-action step will be used. Unless a signed agreement, collective bargaining agreement, or applicable law provides otherwise, either the Employee or the Company may end employment at any time. Only [AUTHORIZED TITLE] may sign an agreement changing that relationship.

1.3 Reporting Channels and Anti-Retaliation

An Employee may report a concern orally or in writing to [SUPERVISOR], [HR CONTACT], or [ALTERNATE/ETHICS CONTACT], and may bypass anyone involved in the concern. The Company will respond promptly and impartially and prohibits retaliation for good-faith reports, accommodation requests, wage complaints, protected leave, court or jury attendance, safety reports, workers' compensation activity, participation in an investigation, or other legally protected conduct.

1.4 Definitions and Coverage Review

“Employee” means an individual employed by the Company, whether full-time, part-time, temporary, or seasonal.

“Workweek” means the seven-day period beginning at [DAY/TIME] and ending at [DAY/TIME] for payroll and overtime purposes.

Complete before issue:

• Twenty-five or more Employees and Company provides paid sick leave: ☐ Yes ☐ No
• More than ten Employees and Georgia private-employer E-Verify rule applies: ☐ Yes ☐ No
• Three or more full-time, part-time, or seasonal Employees for workers' compensation coverage: ☐ Yes ☐ No ☐ Review required
• Federal FMLA-covered employer and eligible worksites: ☐ Yes ☐ No ☐ Review required
• Federal equal-employment coverage thresholds met: ☐ Yes ☐ No ☐ Review required
• Collective bargaining agreement applies: ☐ Yes ☐ No

2. EQUAL EMPLOYMENT AND ACCOMMODATION

2.1 Equal Employment Opportunity

The Company prohibits discrimination, harassment, and retaliation based on race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, national origin, age, disability, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, military or veteran status, or any other status protected by Company policy or applicable law. Employment decisions will be based on lawful job-related considerations.

2.2 Complaint Procedure

Employees should report discrimination, harassment, retaliation, or an accommodation need to [HR CONTACT] or [ALTERNATE CONTACT]. Reports will be addressed promptly and as confidentially as reasonably possible. Employees may contact a government agency or pursue another protected remedy without first exhausting this internal process.

2.3 Disability, Religion, and Pregnancy Accommodation

The Company will engage in an appropriate interactive process and provide reasonable accommodation when required by disability, religious-accommodation, pregnancy, childbirth, and related-condition laws.

2.4 Lactation Breaks and Space

At a Company worksite, the Company will provide an Employee who desires to express breast milk break time of reasonable duration, paid at the Employee's regular rate, and a private location other than a restroom. The Company will not reduce a salaried Employee's salary or require paid leave for that break.

Georgia's paid-break requirement does not apply on a day the Employee works away from every Company worksite. An employer with fewer than fifty Employees may invoke the statutory undue-hardship provision only after Human Resources and counsel review significant difficulty or expense in relation to the Company's size, resources, nature, and structure. Federal law may provide additional coverage.

3. WAGE, HOUR, PAYDAY, AND BREAK POLICIES

3.1 Classification and Minimum Wage

Human Resources will classify workers based on actual duties and the working relationship, not labels alone. Salaried status by itself does not establish an exemption.

Georgia's minimum wage is $5.15 per hour, but the $7.25 federal minimum wage applies with limited exceptions and will ordinarily control. The Company will pay the highest applicable federal, state, local, contractual, or Company rate.

The Company will not use a federal 29 U.S.C. § 214(c) certificate to pay an Employee with a disability below the federal minimum wage. A grandfathered certificate and Georgia's temporary phaseout exception may be used only after written legal review; from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027, the Georgia floor for a qualifying grandfathered employer is one-half of the federal minimum wage, and the exception ends July 1, 2027.

3.2 Timekeeping and Overtime

Non-exempt Employees must accurately record all time worked, including authorized or unauthorized work before or after a shift, remote work, compensable travel, training, interrupted meals, and work communications. Working off the clock is prohibited, but all time actually worked must be recorded and paid.

Covered non-exempt Employees will receive one and one-half times the regular rate for hours worked over forty in a Workweek when required by the Fair Labor Standards Act. Overtime should be approved in advance, but lack of approval does not permit unpaid work.

3.3 Paydays, Statements, and Deductions

The pay frequency is [WEEKLY / BIWEEKLY / SEMIMONTHLY], and payday is [____]. Human Resources will confirm that each selected schedule provides at least the wage-payment frequency required by O.C.G.A. § 34-7-2 and any statutory exception applicable to the workforce.

Employees must promptly review each wage statement and report a suspected error to [PAYROLL CONTACT]. The Company will make deductions required by law and voluntary deductions that the Employee has properly authorized. It will not make a deduction that unlawfully reduces pay below the minimum wage or overtime due.

3.4 Meal and Rest Periods

Neither Georgia law nor the FLSA generally requires ordinary meal or rest periods for adult workers. The Company policy is:

• Meal period: [____ minutes after ____ hours / not offered]
• Rest periods: [____ minutes and frequency / not offered]
• Timekeeping method: [automatic deduction / clock out and in / other]

An unpaid meal period requires the Employee to be free to use the period as the Employee wishes and to perform no work. Any work during a meal period must be reported and paid. Short breaks of five through twenty minutes will be treated as paid work time. Lactation breaks are governed by Section 2.4, and Human Resources must separately review child-labor rules before employing a minor.

3.5 Vacation, Sick Time, and General PTO

Georgia does not generally require an employer to create vacation, sick, or personal leave. The Company's written policy is:

• Accrual method: [____]
• Carryover or cap: [____]
• Permitted uses: [____]
• Separation payout rule: [____]
• Scheduling and approval rules: [____]

If Section 4.2 applies, the sick-leave policy must permit the required family-care use.

4. FAMILY, MEDICAL, COURT, VOTING, AND COMPANY LEAVE

4.1 Federal Family and Medical Leave

The FMLA applies to private employers with fifty or more Employees in at least twenty workweeks in the current or preceding calendar year and to covered public employers. An Employee generally must have twelve months of service, 1,250 hours worked in the prior twelve months, and fifty Employees within seventy-five miles of the worksite.

Eligible Employees may receive up to twelve workweeks of unpaid, job-protected leave for qualifying family, medical, and military-exigency reasons and up to twenty-six workweeks in a single twelve-month period for qualifying military-caregiver leave. A separate FMLA policy and required notices control administration.

4.2 Family-Care Use of Earned Sick Leave

If the Company employs twenty-five or more Employees and offers paid sick leave, an Employee who works at least thirty hours per week may use up to five days of earned sick leave per calendar year to care for an immediate family member. For this rule, immediate family includes the Employee's child, spouse, grandchild, grandparent, parent, or a dependent shown on the Employee's most recent tax return.

This rule does not require the Company to create sick leave, permit more than five family-care days, or disregard the ordinary terms of the sick-leave policy. Employees must comply with the same notice and verification rules that apply to personal sick leave, to the extent lawful.

4.3 Jury Duty, Subpoenas, and Court Orders

An Employee must promptly provide [CONTACT] a jury summons, subpoena, or other compulsory court process and follow reasonable notice procedures. The Company will not discharge, discipline, threaten, or otherwise penalize an Employee for attending a judicial proceeding in response to qualifying process. The statutory protection does not cover attendance because the Employee is charged with a crime.

Because Georgia public sources conflict on whether ordinary wages must continue during jury service, the Company adopts the safer policy of paying the Employee's regular wages for scheduled work time missed for jury service, less any juror fee only if counsel confirms the offset is permitted. Exempt salary will be administered under federal law.

4.4 Voting Leave

Upon reasonable notice, an eligible Employee may take up to two hours away from work to vote in a municipal, county, state, or federal primary or election. Election-day leave is available when the Employee's work hours do not begin at least two hours after the polls open or end at least two hours before the polls close. An Employee may use the statutory time for advance voting, and the Company may designate the hours of absence.

Voting leave is [PAID / UNPAID] under Company policy. The policy will not be administered to interfere with the statutory opportunity to vote.

4.5 Military and Other Protected Leave

The Company will provide military leave, nondiscrimination, and reemployment rights required by USERRA and other applicable law. Human Resources will also evaluate requests for accommodation, FMLA, family-care sick leave, court attendance, voting, workers' compensation absence, and other protected leave rather than treating the absence as ordinary attendance misconduct.

4.6 Company Leave

5. SAFETY AND WORKERS' COMPENSATION

5.1 Workplace Safety

Employees must follow safety rules, use required protective equipment, and promptly report hazards, injuries, and illnesses to [CONTACT]. The Company prohibits retaliation for a good-faith safety or injury report.

5.2 Workers' Compensation

The Company will secure Georgia workers' compensation coverage when required. Most employers with three or more full-time, part-time, or seasonal Employees must carry coverage. Corporate officers and limited-liability-company members generally count toward that threshold even if they exempt themselves from coverage. Railroad carriers, federal agencies, farm laborers, and domestic servants are among the stated exceptions requiring individualized review.

Employees should report a work-related injury or illness promptly to [CONTACT] so the Company can meet insurance, notice, recordkeeping, and reporting duties.

5.3 Drug and Alcohol Policy

The Company policy is [NO TESTING / SEPARATE TESTING POLICY ATTACHED]. This Handbook alone does not establish a drug-testing program or authorize applicant, random, reasonable-suspicion, post-accident, or return-to-duty testing. Any program must be separately reviewed for the Company's industry, federal obligations, disability and privacy rules, collection procedures, and any workers' compensation consequences.

5.4 Violence Prevention and Weapons

Threats, violence, and unauthorized weapons are prohibited in Company buildings, work areas, and Company-owned vehicles to the extent permitted by law. Human Resources must review applicable Georgia weapons and parking-area rules before searching a private vehicle or acting on a report about a weapon stored there.

6. RECORDS, EMPLOYMENT ELIGIBILITY, AND PROTECTED ACTIVITY

6.1 Employment Eligibility Verification

The Company will complete and retain federal Form I-9 for each covered hire and will allow the Employee to choose from legally acceptable documents. If the Company is a Georgia private employer with more than ten Employees, it will register for and use E-Verify as required for new hires and complete the affidavit or other proof required for a business license, occupational tax certificate, or other covered document.

6.2 Confidentiality and Lawful Disclosures

Employees must protect legitimate confidential and trade-secret information learned through work. This policy does not prohibit an Employee from reporting suspected unlawful conduct to a government agency or attorney, cooperating in an investigation, discussing wages or working conditions where protected, or engaging in other legally protected activity.

6.3 Personnel and Medical Records

The Company will maintain payroll, leave, accommodation, medical, testing, and personnel records with access limited to legitimate business and legal needs. Protected medical information will be stored separately or treated confidentially when required.

7. CONDUCT, ATTENDANCE, AND CORRECTIVE ACTION

7.1 Expected Conduct

Employees must perform assigned duties safely and honestly; comply with lawful policies; accurately record time and business records; protect Company, customer, and coworker property; avoid unlawful harassment, threats, or violence; and disclose actual conflicts of interest to [HR/COMPLIANCE].

7.2 Attendance and Call-In

Employees unable to report as scheduled must notify [CONTACT] by [METHOD] at least [____] before the shift when practicable. This policy will be administered consistently with accommodation, FMLA, family-care sick leave, court, voting, military, workers' compensation, and other protected-absence laws.

7.3 Corrective Action

The Company may use coaching, verbal warning, written warning, final warning, suspension, or termination. It may select or skip steps based on the circumstances. This policy does not create a contract or authorize action for a protected reason.

8. SEPARATION OF EMPLOYMENT

8.1 Notice and Return of Property

Employees are requested, but not required by this Handbook, to provide [____] days' resignation notice. At separation, Employees must return Company property and records. The Company will not withhold earned wages as leverage for a disputed debt or unreturned property outside a deduction permitted by law.

8.2 Final Pay and Benefits

Earned wages will be paid no later than the payday required by the Company's lawful regular schedule. Vacation, commissions, bonuses, expenses, severance, and benefits will be handled under the governing written policy, plan, agreement, and applicable law. Complete the separation payout rule in Section 3.5 before issue.

9. ADMINISTRATION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENT

9.1 Policy Administration

The Company may prospectively revise policies in writing, subject to applicable law, earned wages and leave, contracts, and collective bargaining agreements. If a policy conflicts with controlling law, the law controls and the policy will be administered as closely as possible to its lawful purpose.

9.2 No Mandatory Internal Exhaustion

Employees are encouraged to use internal reporting channels, but nothing in this Handbook requires an Employee to waive or delay a right to contact a government agency, file a charge, report a crime, seek emergency assistance, consult counsel, discuss wages or working conditions where protected, or pursue another protected remedy.

9.3 Separate Agreements

Any arbitration, restrictive-covenant, invention-assignment, confidentiality, commission, bonus, or employment agreement must be separately drafted and reviewed for current Georgia and federal law. This Handbook itself does not impose arbitration, a jury waiver, employee indemnity, a damages cap, attorney-fee shifting, an exclusive court forum, or a force-majeure excuse from wage or leave obligations.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF RECEIPT

I, [EMPLOYEE NAME], acknowledge that I received the [Company Legal Name] Employee Handbook effective [MM/DD/YYYY] and understand that I am expected to follow its lawful policies. I understand that this acknowledgment and the Handbook are not employment contracts and do not promise employment for a fixed term.

Sources and References

• Georgia Department of Labor — Minimum Wage
• Georgia General Assembly — 2025 SB 55, Dignity and Pay Act (Act 46)
• Georgia Department of Labor — Breaks and Meals
• Georgia Department of Labor — FLSA FAQs
• Georgia Department of Labor — Laws and Regulations FAQs
• Georgia General Assembly — 2017 SB 201, Family Care Act, as Passed
• Georgia General Assembly — 2023 SB 61, Permanent Family-Care Rule (Act 90)
• Georgia General Assembly — 2020 HB 1090, Lactation Breaks, as Passed
• Georgia General Assembly — 2023 SB 129, Advance Voting Leave, as Passed
• Georgia Attorney General — Official Opinion 95-13, Court-Attendance Protection
• Wayne County, Georgia — Jury Service and Employer Information
• Georgia State Board of Workers' Compensation — Coverage Verification and Threshold
• Georgia General Assembly — Private-Employer E-Verify Provision
• Georgia Code Portal
• U.S. Department of Labor — FLSA Hours Worked
• U.S. Department of Labor — FLSA Overtime
• U.S. Department of Labor — FMLA Frequently Asked Questions
• U.S. Department of Labor — USERRA Rights
• USCIS — Completing Form I-9