Anti-Nepotism Policy

Here’s the kind of language you can use as a starting point for your own anti-nepotism policy. HR managers in any part of the country can adapt this Model Policy for use at their own workplace.

 

  1. PURPOSE

The intent of this Policy is to foster a workplace in which all individuals have fair and equal opportunity to be hired and achieve advancement on the basis of merit and ability without the influence of family or marital ties and other personal characteristics or circumstances that have no relation to merit or ability.

 

  1. DEFINITIONS

For the purposes of this Policy:

  • “Family status” means being in a parent-child relationship, including via adoption or step- relationships;
  • “Marital” means the status of being single, engaged to be married, married, divorced, widowed, separated or living together with another person in a conjugal relationship outside of marriage;
  • “Nepotism” means an employment advantage derived from a person’s family or marital status, including but not limited to being related or married to another ABC Company director, officer, manager, supervisor or employee;
  • “Spouse” means a person with whom an individual has a marital relationship, even if the couple are simply engaged or living together outside of marriage.

 

  1. POLICY
  2. No Nepotism: It is the policy of ABC Company that all employment decisions be made on the basis of merit and that no individual shall gain an advantage in employment as a result of nepotism. It is strictly prohibited for any director, officer, manager, supervisor or employee of ABC Company to use or attempt to use his or her status to influence employment decisions to secure an employment advantage with ABC Company for a relative or spouse solely because of the person’s family or marital ties, including but not limited to respecting:
  • Hiring;
  • Retention of employment;
  • Advancement or promotion;
  • Salary or wages;
  • Hours of work;
  • Assignment of location or position; or
  • Any other employment-related benefit.
  1. No Penalizing of Family Members: At the same time, ABC Company is equally committed to ensuring that family members and spouses of ABC Company directors, officers, managers, supervisors and employees are given equal opportunity to gain employment and advancement without being needlessly penalized or made to suffer adverse consequences merely because of their family or marital ties to such directors, officers, managers, supervisors and employees.

 

  1. FAMILY MEMBERS MAY NOT BE IN DIRECT SUPERVISOR-SUBORDINATE RELATIONSHIPS

In applying this Policy, ABC Company will make reasonable accommodations to afford all individuals equality of opportunity regardless of family or marital status by considering the unique facts of each situation up to the point of undue hardship. But while the general approach is to exercise flexibility and treat every situation individually, ABC Company has determined that there is one situation that is so inherently likely to result in conflicts of interest and/or abuses of power that it cannot be tolerated in any situation. Accordingly, employees may not be directly supervised by an individual with whom they have a family or marital relationship. For purposes of this Policy, a supervisory relationship will be deemed to exist when one person has the power to:

  • Control or assign the subordinate’s work assignment or work schedule;
  • Grant or deny the subordinate a benefit;
  • Discipline the subordinate; and/or
  • Review the subordinate’s performance.

 

  1. PROCEDURES

To ensure fair and effective implementation of this Policy:

  • Job applicants seeking positions with ABC Company will be required to disclose any family or marital relations with current Company officers, directors, managers, supervisors or employees;
  • Current ABC Company personnel seeking promotions will be required to disclose any family or marital relations with current Company officers, directors, managers, supervisors or employees, including marital relations (as that term is defined above) with such officers, directors, managers, supervisors or employees that they began after or otherwise did not disclose when they initially applied for employment;
  • No employee will be assigned to a position in which he/she will be supervised by a family member or spouse;
  • In the event that an employee comes to be supervised by a family member or spouse, e.g., where the family member or spouse is newly hired or promoted to a supervisory position, the subordinate employee will be reassigned to a comparable position as soon as reasonably practicable after the transfer;
  • For the purposes of the above bullet, “comparable position” means one involving no loss in pay or benefits.

 

  1. CONSEQUENCES OF NON-COMPLIANCE

Failure to comply with this Policy may result in disciplinary action up to and including termination, to be determined at ABC Company’s discretion and in accordance with the terms of all applicable  HR disciplinary policies and collective agreements.