Nepotism in Organizations

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Nepotism and Employment Law

Arthur Gutman

Florida Institute of Technology

This chapter addresses legal issues associated with nepotism in the workplace. Most of the relevant case law addresses policies that oppose nepotism, or anti-nepotism policies. Such policies are common in federal, state, and municipal agencies, and, in more recent times, private entities. Anti-nepotism policies address relatives of existing employees, with broad targets. For example, Section 310.102 of the Code of Federal Regulations defines relative as follows:

Relative means father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, first cousin, nephew, niece, husband, wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, ...