Employees Who Are Legally Qualified Candidates

So what do you do if an when you get an employee, especially an on-air employee running for office? Do you ask them to quit? Do you lay them off? Our resident H.R. expert doesn’t suggest doing either one.Why look for trouble if you don’t need it? Assuming you have an on-air employee who becomes a “legally qualified candidate”, and assuming he/she is a valuable employee, look for a way to keep that employee employed…just not on the air. Yes, the employee/candidate can try to get waivers from his/her opposing candidates allowing him/her to continue to work provided there is no discussion on-air of the election or related issues, but that’s still asking for problems.So what do you do if you just can’t afford to have “Mr.” or “Ms.” Radio hanging around the station draining all-too scarce funds and you have to at least terminate employment until after the election? If you lay someone off for reasons of economic necessity, you can’t just turn around and fill that position.

We imagine your personnel policies and procedures address “moonlighting” right? Why not sure you have policies stipulating that if an employee chooses to become a legally qualified candidate and this leads to an economic burden via Section 315 or similar “equal time requirements”, the company reserves the right to terminate employment and fill the position. All employees must receive this with their new hire packages or in the instance of currently employed individuals, all employees must receive, and acknowledge receipt of this policy.

That’s 30 For Now…For What It’s Worth