If you own a business, you already know that there are many things you have to do in order to ensure that you are in compliance with the law. One of these things is displaying the proper labor law posters that inform your employees of their rights and responsibilities under the law. There are two types of labor law posters that you need: a set required by the federal government’s Department of Labor, and a set required by your own state’s government.
Following the policies that govern the Department of Labor’s posters will keep you from facing heavy legal fees or any problems with injured or disgruntled employees. The rules that you must follow for posting the labor laws are:
- If you have at least one employee other than yourself, you must display the labor law posters.
- The posters must be in physical format.
- If your employees do not meet at a central building, but are instead based in separate locations, the labor law poster polices require that you post duplicates at each location.
- The posters may not be resized. Some posters, such as the OSHA poster, have very specific size requirements that must be adhered to. The OSHA poster must be 8.5 by 14 inches, and must be typed in 10-point font.
- The labor law posters must be displayed in a visible area that employees frequent, such as a break room, a kitchen, a meeting room, or even a service entry way.
- It is your responsibility to ensure that the labor laws are clearly communicated to every employee. Therefore, if you have Spanish-speaking employees, it is a good idea to post them in both languages. In the states of Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, New Mexico, North Carolina, New York and Texas, you must post in both Spanish and English if your employee base is more than 5% Spanish speaking.
- You must display these additional posters where applicants can see them: EEOC, FMLA, EPPA, and the E-Verify and Anti-Discrimination notice if you use the E-Verify system.
- If you are a federal contractor, you must display these additional posters that do not apply to non-federal employers: EEO is the Law Notice, OSHA’s Employee Whistle-Blower Rights Notice, Walsh-Healey Public Contracts Act, National Labor Relations Act Notice (NLRA), and the You Have the Right to Work Notice.
- Any time that labor laws change, you must display updated posters. If you purchased your posters with a specific package from a seller, they should send you new versions. If you printed the posters yourself, you will be responsible for keeping up with the laws and procuring new posters.
After you understand exactly what the Department of Labor’s labor law poster policies are, you can get the list of specific posters that you need from the Department of Labor poster page. Every business is required to post the same basic federal posters, and federal contractors should be careful to check for the additional posters that they need.
