Who owns the decision, and who organizes the working day?

Two different functions within the establishment

When an establishment asks for an “internal regulation”, it may mean organizing the partners’ decisions, controlling attendance and leave, or both.

Governance deals with the distribution of authority, oversight and the competent bodies within the company. Work regulations, by contrast, address the employment relationship under the Labor Law.

Defining what is meant avoids producing a document that looks comprehensive while leaving essential matters unaddressed, and also identifies who holds the power to approve and amend each document.

An administrative decision needs a basis

Calling an employee a “manager” is not enough to give him every authority; the powers and the way they are documented must be defined, together with the substitute in case of absence and the procedure for withdrawing or amending authority.

An employee’s rights are not reduced to a policy

Work regulations cover subjects such as working hours, leave and violation procedures, while observing the legal rights and controls.

The Ministry of Human Resources provides a service for approving regulations, including the routes suited to templates and customized regulations according to its requirements.

The establishment needs to align the regulations with employment contracts and the nature of operations, and to make them available to employees in the required manner. It should not be assumed that an employee’s signature acknowledging receipt replaces any separate procedure the law requires.

A practical test before approval

Suppose a procurement policy gives the operations manager the authority to contract, while the company’s contract limits commitments to certain amounts, and the work regulations make breaching instructions grounds for a penalty.

Here three questions must be kept separate:

1. Was the contract issued by someone with authority?
2. Did the employee breach clear instructions?
3. Did the establishment follow the penalty procedures?

Reviewing the documents as one unit reveals this conflict early. One can start with a table showing each document, its owner, its approving body and its review date, then train those responsible to apply it in everyday cases.