The days of labor law posters in the break room are not over, but as so many employees are now engaging in remote work, they may no longer be sufficient. Employers have the same obligation to provide labor law posters to remote employees as they do for those on-premise, making conspicuous placement of posters in a physical location only part of the solution.
Employers are increasingly asking the question, “Are emailed copies of notices or links to my company website sufficient to comply with Federal, State, City, and County requirements?”
Do Electronic Posters & Notices Suffice?
Most laws and statutes with poster requirements were written before the internet was prevalent in the workplace and before remote and online work became a significant part of the employer/employee experience.
However, there is support from various agencies, including guidelines published by the United States Department of Labor, that suggest notification via electronic means is an acceptable form of notification for fully remote employees - if certain requirements are met.
In their bulletin for employers, the US DOL states, “Where an employer has employees on-site and other employees teleworking full-time, the employer may supplement a hard-copy posting requirement with electronic posting”. The US DOL goes on to outline a few requirements, such as:
- For posters where “continuous posting” is required, an email containing a PDF or link is not sufficient. Employees must be able to easily locate and review notices.
- Posters and notices must be available to employees without requiring them to ask the employer to provide the information to them.
- If an intranet is used to provide such posters and notices to remote employees, the intranet must also be a common and frequently used location for company information. Posting in a rarely used internal company website is not sufficient.
States will generally follow precedents set by the federal department of labor or set by their peers, and there are already examples where states accept electronically distributed notices. Two examples are:
- California Pregnancy Disability Leave poster requirements, which state: “Electronic posting is sufficient to meet this posting requirement as long as it is posted electronically in a conspicuous place or places where employees would tend to view it in the workplace.”
- California COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave poster requirements, which state: “If a hiring entity’s covered workers do not frequent a workplace, the hiring entity may satisfy the notice requirement by disseminating notice through electronic means.”
Electronic Distribution is Supported by the Legal Industry
Electronic distribution of the applicable posters to fully remote workers is also supported by the legal industry. Practitioners specializing in employment law advise that the best way to comply with state and federal posting requirements for fully remote employees – and to mitigate compliance risk – is to use electronic means to distribute notices to individuals who do not frequent an office location.
Proof in the Event of a Dispute
They say that if done properly, the business can use proof of the electronic distribution to demonstrate good faith efforts to comply with the relevant laws and share important employee rights information as required.
The problem with relying solely on an email or intranet-based approach (aside from the fact that it is difficult to manage and keep up with all of the required notices and changes) is that, in the event of a labor dispute, the burden of proof is on the employer to demonstrate that notices were properly distributed and employees were properly notified. This is supported by the National Law Review, which recently stated, “Employers may want to consider providing a manner for employees to acknowledge receipt of the posted information to ensure they are fulfilling their obligations.”
ePosterService Assists Employers in Complying with Requirements, Including DOL Guidelines
With ePosterService™, employers rely on an automated and intelligent system to provide mandatory labor law notices and posters to remote employees based on their actual work location (not the company address). The patented notification mechanism and certificate of employee acknowledgment help employers ensure that they have properly distributed the notices and demonstrate that employees have received, viewed, and acknowledged receipt of them. Employees have their own account access, allowing them to visit the online service at any time to review applicable labor law posters. Finally, for companies that do not have a frequently trafficked intranet website, ePosterService™'s web-based approach is a simple, low-cost alternative.
CelloHR in partnership with Poster Elite
Cello HR, a leading provider of HR solutions, is proud to partner with ePosterService, a trusted provider of labor law posters. We can offer our customers a complete solution for all of their labor law posting requirements. Whether you're in need of state, federal, or OSHA posters, ePosterService has you covered.
The posters offered by ePosterService are designed to be easy-to-read and include all of the essential information you need to maintain a compliant workplace. With automatic updates, you can be confident that your posters will always be up-to-date with the latest changes to labor laws.
Don't miss out on this opportunity to keep your business compliant with all labor law posting requirements. Partner with Cello HR and ePosterService today and ensure a safe and compliant workplace for your employees. Contact us to learn more!
Not Legal Advice
While we believe this information to be accurate, it should not be used as legal advice. It is the employer’s responsibility to consult attorneys and solicit legal advice to determine the most appropriate solution for their business circumstances in the jurisdictions within which they operate.