This article was originally published in The Pennsylvania Observer / Pennsylvania Beverage Media in February 2023. A pdf version can be found here.
I have written about the importance for licensees to have an employee handbook in a past column. Licensees should maintain a written employee handbook even though a licensee may have only a few employees. The reason for the handbook is simple: self-protection. The employees have the house rules in a written form, and therefore the employees cannot say that they did not know the house rules when it comes to disciplinary actions.
The handbook should be drafted for the applicable type of license held by the licensee, for example, retail or wholesale.
The handbook is important for guidance and to inform employees what a licensee expects from them as to work performance (cleaning duties, and such), as well as the rules that must be followed. This is especially true, for example, when it comes to preventing sales to minors and what proof of age is required to be produced by the youthful looking patron when the employee challenges them as to proof of age. If the licensee maintains a transactional swipe machine, the use of the transactional device can be mandated in the handbook.
There are a number of rules that should be included in a retail licensee’s handbook regarding sales in general. Retail licensees should have clear house rules as to when last call for drinks must be announced; the time when sales of all alcoholic beverages must cease; and the time when those drinks are rung up in the cash register to avoid any problems with the possibility of sales after hours.
A sale has been determined by case law to involve at least two steps: The customer gives the server the money for the beer, and then the server rings up the sale and gives the customer the beer and any change. The sale is only legally completed after the server delivers the product to the customer. The two steps of the sale must be completed by 2 am. By holding the beer for a time in a cooler and then giving the customer the beer after 2 am, the licensee then completes the sale process after 2 am, and thus is furnishing alcoholic beverages after legal hours, and therefore is guilty of the violation of sales after legal hours. It is all about timing.
Simply complete the sale by taking the money, ring the sale up on the cash register, and turn the alcoholic beverage over to the customer before 2 am to avoid any problems.
Include this two-step sale process in the employee handbook. Review the sale process with the employees.
The handbook should also set the rules when the patrons must vacate the licensed premises, which is no later than a half hour from the legal time that service of alcoholic beverages must cease sales. For retail licensees, as restaurants, sales must cease at 2 am, thus all customers must vacate the premises by 2:30 am. No exceptions!
Also, sales to visibly intoxicated patrons or minors should be covered.
The handbook will carry significant legal weight in legal proceedings, whether civil or criminal, and in Pennsylvania State Police citation hearings, as well as hearings on the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board’s objections to the renewal of a license.
Consult with your attorney about the use of the handbook and what it should contain. Handbooks are a valuable tool.
