Tips to Deal with Employee Disputes

Comply with Laws - Not only are there tax laws to follow and operational procedures with food and safety but you've got labor laws to follow.  There are far too many business owners and caterers out there being sued for wage disputes, overtime issues and worse.  To avoid these types of incidents, always pay your employees and follow wage and hours laws to the letter.

Treat Employees in a Nondiscriminatory Manner - It's easy to get buddy buddy with employees after they've worked with you for a while.  Unfortunately that kind of attitude can land you in hot water if you say or do the wrong thing.  To avoid these types of incidents you need to keep personal separate from business and run your catering business in a professional manner.

Use Documents, Progressive Discipline - You may very well have your catering business in a state that offers at-will employment but you still need to keep a strong paper trail that documents your progressive discipline with an employee.  If you cut someone loose and you have no proof to back up your claims, you could come under a suit for wrongful discharge - or worse.

Conduct Regular Audits - When you're established in your catering industry and ready to grow, you should hire an attorney or specialist in labor and employee relations to audit your employment practices.  This can help to ensure that you're in compliance with local, state and federal labor practices and other relevant laws.  This should also be done regularly to ensure that you're in compliance with regularly changing laws.

Catering Supplies - Provide Training - If you have more than one manager or shift manager, back of the house manager, etc then you should provide training for those individuals on harassment, wage, labor and other compliance issues.  These keeps everyone on the same page in understanding how you must operate.While this doesn't stop incidents from occurring, the fact that you provide ongoing training can be used as probative evidence in the defense of a claim of harassment or discrimination.

Catering Supplies - Update your Handbook - It's smart to verbally communicate your policies and compliance procedures with all of your staff, not just your managers, but always make sure that the information is available in writing.  Share the information with staff, get signatures accepting the handbook.  This shows that your staff understands the importance of compliance and can help you avoid problems in the future of employees attempting to manipulate policies to suit their needs.

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