Employee handbook not returned (I am in California)

Sheila2008

Terminated employees are supposed to turn in their employee handbook when they leave the company (it states that in the employee handbook).  What can I do to inforce that?

HRforME

Is there a reason you want it back?  Most of my employees don't keep them past the first couple of days!  If it is confidential/proprietary information, you might check with your corporate counsel on how to have the information available without them having a personal copy. 

You generally can not withhold a last paycheck or pay. See http://www.las-elc.org/GettingFinalPaycheck.pdf for more information on timing of the paycheck in California. CA has very strict rules on final paychecks.  See http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/FAQ_Deductions.htm to see what deductions are legal...and goes on to state "No, your employer cannot legally make such a deduction from your wages if, by reason of mistake or accident a cash shortage, breakage, or loss of company property/equipment occurs. The California courts have held that losses occurring without any fault on the part of the employee or that are merely the result of simple negligence are inevitable in almost any business operation and thus, the employer must bear such losses as a cost of doing business. For example, if you accidentally drop a tray of dishes, take a bad check, or have a customer walkout without paying a check, your employer cannot deduct the loss from your paycheck."

dhall111

I can't think of anything.  There is no way to truly enforce it.  They could have made a copy anyhow so what good would it do for you to get the original back?

Have every page with a footer (company proprietary, etc.)

TXHRGuy

Some employee handbooks can have proprietary information in them: usually it's about business processes.  I've seen that in tech companies.

There are a couple things you can do.  First, use a non disclosure agreement.  Require it as a condition of employment at the time of hire.  If you are in an industry that uses non-competes, then non-disclosures will be typical and accepted by your employees.  If your employees are delivery drivers, the non-compete won't be enforceable and you'll get a lot of pushback on fancy contracts about what you can and cannot talk about.  However, if you can implement a non-disclosure, then the location of the handbook is largely irrelevent since they have to protect the information anyway, even after employment ends.  Second, you could, as someone said above, put the proprietary information in another place that doesn't go offsite, although pictures, screen shots, recordings, and plain old fashioned office printers conspire against secrecy.  Policies against recording materials can help.  Third, if it's that important: sue them.  That's the only way you'll ever see it again at this point, anyway.  However, it's hard to deal with getting the book back if they say they threw it away.  Depending on the information, you'd probably not get more than the replacement value of the handbook which is vastly overshadowed by the cost of the litigation, itself, even if it's a small claims matter pursued by your receptionist.  The labor and mileage alone will cost more than the booklet unless you have a really, really, nice employee handbook.