Massachusetts Turnpike Authority's company-handbook case further warning to employers.

Byline: Julia Reischel

A Supreme Judicial Court decision entitling a retired employee of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority to be compensated for unused sick time falls in line with previous rulings by the court on issues involving company handbooks and emphasizes the care that employers must take in issuing such manuals, according to practitioners.

"I think it is, in general, in keeping with the trend that if employees have relied on statements or policies written in employment manuals, the courts are more inclined to enforce them," said Daniel S. Tarlow, an employment lawyer at Prince, Lobel, Glovsky & Tye in Boston.

The five-page decision in LeMaitre v. Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (Lawyers Weekly No. 10-212-08) affirms the Appeals Court's finding that plaintiff Robert LeMaitre had effectively made a deal with the MTA when he limited the use of his sick days in response to a provision in a 1979 version of the employee handbook promising financial incentives for doing so.

Although the MTA decreased the value of benefits offered …