My employer (a credit/collections company with mostly utility-company clients) has distributed a form for all employees to sign regarding a policy to take effect March 15, 2009. The policy states that if a customer sues the company due to an employee failing to follow company policy or state regulations, the employee is liable for 25% of the legal defense fees, up to $500, to be deducted from the employees paycheck. Most of the employees declined to sign the policy. A memo was sent out later in the day stating that all employees were required to sign the new policy, and any employees who refused to sign it would have their names forwarded to the corporate office "for follow-up". Are we really required to sign something like this? Can we be fired if we dont?

Let 'em "report you to corporate". While corporate is "following up", run this document by a local employment attorney. My first reaction is that such a policy would not be enforceable against employees. One of the premises in the classification of employee vs. independent contractors is that employees cannot "incur a risk of loss" in the performance of their jobs, and that sounds like exactly what is being proposed here.