Labor law posters are designed to inform employees about their rights in the workplace. Previously, displaying federally required labor law posters in prominent locations was sufficient to ensure all your employees had access to that information.
Due to the rise in remote working, it has become necessary to adapt how employers deliver this information. To ensure they are doing this effectively, laws have been written at both the federal and state levels. It is the employer’s responsibility to comply with all the relevant laws.
How do you know which laws are relevant to your business and workers? How can you adapt your current compliance system to adhere to all of the relevant laws? Learn all you need to know in our complete guide to digital notices.
Contact Us with Compliance Training Questions
In this Article:
- Why Compliance Matters
- How States Differ in Compliance
- Are Email Labor Law Posters Compliant?
- Employee Acknowledgement of Digital Posters
- How to Handle Evolving Compliance
- Best Practices for Staying Compliant With Digital Notices
Why Compliance Matters
When the number of remote workers rose during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Labor (DOL) published guidance on providing labor law posters for remote workers. Subsequently, businesses have had to adapt how they comply with these new requirements.
Despite not experiencing the same risks as on-site workers, your remote employees have the same rights and protections. It is your duty to ensure your employees know what those rights and protections are. This includes providing accessible and easily understandable information, regardless of their location.
Complying with any federal and/or state laws on remote work compliance is important to avoid repercussions, such as fines and legal challenges. Noncompliance can also damage your company’s reputation and erode employee trust. Staying compliant with digital posters is an investment in your company’s future.
How States Differ in Compliance
When it comes to delivering digital notices to your remote workforce, you must be aware of which laws you need to comply with. You will always have to follow federal law, which affects you regardless of where in the United States your business or your employee is based. You may also have to comply with specific state laws.
Note that the state laws the employer has to comply with are not solely dependent on their location. In most cases, the state law that has to be adhered to is based on where the employee works. However, this is not always the case. Several factors can create exceptions, including the location of the employer’s principal place of business, the terms of an employment contract or the nature of the work performed.
Federal Department of Labor Guidance
In states that do not have their own remote labor law compliance, the employer has to comply with federal law only, which advises that all employees must have ongoing access to the following labor law posters:
- Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA)
- Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)
- Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)
- Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA)
- Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Act (USERRA)
- Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)
Remote employees can either receive these posters directly or have access to them via an online platform. This ensures they never have to request any of the above notices. Posters must be readily accessible at all times, and employees should know where and how to access them.
Since many of these posters are required by different administrations within the DOL, the specific requirements for each poster can vary, as can the penalties for not complying.
States Following Internal Compliance
A few jurisdictions now explicitly require electronic delivery in addition to physical posting. Others mandate remote delivery for specific program notices. Many states remain silent on e-posting, so maintain physical postings at worksites and provide electronic access for remote staff as a best practice.
These eight states have created legislation on providing electronic labor law posters for remote employees:
- New York: Employers must make all labor law posters easily accessible in digital format.
- Illinois: Employers must make the notices for Minimum Wage and Overtime, Equal Pay, Wage Payment and Collection Act, and Child Labor easily accessible in digital format.
- Ohio: Employers may choose to post any of the posters for Minimum Wage, Minor Labor Laws, Fair Employment/”Equal Opportunity is the Law,” and Workers’ Compensation either physically or digitally. Federal labor law notices must still be posted both physically and digitally.
- Colorado: Employers must share their Paid Leave, Whistleblowing and Protective Equipment posters with their remote workers, either by physical mail or digital mail.
- Oregon: Employers must share their Paid Family and Medical Leave Insurance posters with their remote workers, either by physical mail or digital mail.
- Arizona, Maine and Washington: Employers must provide their remote workers with labor law posters, which can be done digitally.
When a state creates its own legislation, it doesn’t replace federal laws. Instead, it supplements them, requiring even more compliance from businesses.
State legislation on providing digital labor law posters for remote employees is still being written. Therefore, it is likely that more states will eventually provide their own guidance and regulations.
Are Email Labor Law Posters Compliant?
Many businesses prefer to email labor law posters. While this approach is compliant, there are some drawbacks. The main concern is ensuring continued access, as federal law and many electronic notice delivery state laws require.
If employees do not save the files and the email is deleted, it could be argued that not enough care was taken to ensure they had ongoing access to the posters. Another issue employers face when emailing labor law posters is documenting and tracking receipt acknowledgements from their employees. This can be a time-consuming and inefficient process.
That is why hosting the relevant labor law posters in an accessible location is considered an e-service best practice. This could be on your company’s intranet, a cloud service or a specific compliance platform such as eComply 360.
Employee Acknowledgement of Digital Posters
There may be times when you have to prove remote employees received labor law notices. This may be because of an audit or a lawsuit involving an employee. Whatever the reason, it is important to have evidence that your employees had access to the posters as required by law.
The most irrefutable evidence of this is the employee’s acknowledgement that they received the posters. While sent receipts are useful, there is no guarantee the employee received them. The email may have been sent to the wrong address, marked as spam or otherwise not received. Employee acknowledgement of receipt solves this issue.
Receiving this acknowledgement can be a challenge. Some tips to make this process easier include:
- Integrate with onboarding: Make policy acknowledgement a standard part of the onboarding process. New hires should be trained on the importance of these policies and how to acknowledge them within your system.
- Automate for updates: Use a system that automatically requests acknowledgement from your employee anytime they are sent a new poster or a poster has changed.
- Make it easy: Use a simple, intuitive interface that requires little time or effort from your employees to confirm acknowledgment.
- Highlight importance: Make it clear to your employees that acknowledgement is crucial.
Once you have received acknowledgement, you will need to document it. This requires a well-organized system to ensure you can track the acknowledgements each of your remote workers has sent you.
Purpose-built technology, such as Poster Compliance Center’s eComply360 platform, makes it easy for your employees to access all necessary posters. It also streamlines the process, allowing you to easily receive and document employee acknowledgements.
How to Handle Evolving Compliance
It is not enough to make sure your business is compliant right now — you need to stay compliant going forward, too.
Changes to the Law
One of the main changes you need to be aware of is your state’s guidance. To make sure you’re aware of any evolving remote workforce compliance trends, be sure your business:
- Knows when state law on remote working is introduced.
- Assesses how those new laws differ from federal law.
- Adapts its current processes to comply with the new laws.
As remote working becomes the norm, you should expect your state to create its own laws sooner rather than later, if it has not already. If your business has a presence in several states, consider the varying digital labor law poster requirements by state when creating your processes.
Changes to Your Workforce
Thanks to remote working, you have access to a wider talent pool than ever before. This gives your business a competitive advantage, but it does come with unique compliance considerations, particularly if your team includes non-English speakers.
The DOL does not have blanket instructions for foreign language posters, but some posters do have particular requirements. These posters include the FMLA and the Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA). It is your responsibility to ensure your team has access to and can understand these posters. This generally means providing the posters in your employees’ preferred language.
Whether you need to provide posters in multiple languages depends on certain conditions. Typically, you only need to do so when a large proportion of your workforce is non-English speaking. However, the DOL recommends that you make these posters accessible to your workforce even where DOL remote employee notice rules do not require you to accommodate non-English speakers.
Adapting How You Tackle Compliance
To ensure your business is consistently compliant, integrate the legal requirements around labor law posters into your HR software. Using the software to deliver labor law posters can simplify the task without relying on your employees to save the posters themselves.
Auditing for digital poster compliance is also important, especially if you are concerned about compliance changes. If you have not reviewed your compliance program recently, an audit could help identify and fix issues. Auditing is particularly useful for large businesses operating in several locations.
If you are unsure how to integrate the acknowledgement of poster law with your HR software or carry out a thorough audit, Poster Compliance Center can help. We provide corporate compliance solutions that help you ensure your company is compliant today and in the future.
Best Practices for Staying Compliant With Digital Notices
These tips can help you stay compliant with labor law poster requirements for your remote employees:
- Make information easily accessible: Rather than relying on your employees to save posters themselves, post them where they will always have access to them. If necessary, provide posters in multiple languages relevant to your workforce. Consider a centralized online platform for easy and continuous access.
- Get acknowledgement: Ensure you receive and document acknowledgement from your employees every time they get a new or updated poster. This creates a clear record of compliance and protects your business in case of audits or legal challenges.
- Know the law: Find out exactly what laws apply to your business and take steps to ensure compliance. This includes understanding both federal and state regulations.
- Stay up to date: Keep informed on any upcoming changes that may affect how you provide labor law posters for your remote workers. Subscribe to legal updates to stay ahead of evolving compliance requirements.
- Use technology: Implement advanced tools such as eComply360, which can simplify your compliance processes and systems. Our platform can track acknowledgements and ensure you are always using the most up-to-date versions of required posters.
- Get professional guidance: Partner with businesses that help employers stay compliant with labor law poster requirements. Poster Compliance Center takes care of your compliance needs so you can take care of your business.
Choose Poster Compliance Center for Advanced Digital Poster Compliance
Since 1991, Poster Compliance Center has been helping businesses with all aspects of labor law poster requirements. From helping you determine which posters you need to keeping you informed of compliance changes, our digital compliance solutions are advanced, effective and easy to use. Over the last 32 years, none of our clients have had violations while we have worked with them.
Our extensive warranty demonstrates our confidence in our ability to do the same for your business. Whether you are part of a national corporation or managing compliance for a fully remote company, we provide a compliance guarantee. When you have questions or concerns, you can easily access our experienced customer service with 24/7 access to the customer portal.
To find out more about how we can provide the best e-service for labor law compliance for your business, contact us today.
