Contract? or not? - Florida

[Cadian]

What defines a contract?

A company driver policy that requires the employee to be financially responsible, can this be seen as a contract?

In Florida a employer can not denied you work if you refuse to sign a employment contract. so some employers are
using the term company policy to get around this issue.

[DAW]

No simple answer here. The short answer is that you need to take all documents to a local attorney who has to actually read the documents. The longer answer is "that depends". Contract law varies (a lot) state to state, so what is true in one state is not necessarily true in a different state. Contract law is very specific to the exact wording of all related documents in their entirety. Contract law is very specific to how similar cases were decided in your juristiction. Taking a phrase or two out of one of the documents is legally meaningless. Contract law NEVER overrides labor law. Parties cannot contract for something that they had no legal authority over in the first place. For example, federal law generally requires the payment of minimum wage and often overtime. Under federal law (FLSA), a deduction legally defined as "for the benefit of the employer" cannot impact MW or OT. Writing a contract or a company policy does not change that. I can say that FL has very little in the way of labor law, and does not admistratively enforce what little state labor law it does have. FL is very much a "go to court" state.

[Betty3]

If you have a written company policy, agree take the document to an attorney for review & advice.

[dkstaub]

I am not a Florida lawyer, but I believe your initial statement, that "In Florida a employer can not denied you work if you refuse to sign a employment contract" is either incorrect or at the very least way too broad to be true.

For example, Florida has a statute that specifically recognizes the enforceability of restrictive covenants in employment. Why would the legislature create a statute like that if no employer can require a restrictive covenant as a condition of employment?

Before you spend too much effort trying to determine what is and what is not a contract, you'd better make sure that it is even relevant.