New Employment Poster Requirements
By: INGRID N. CULP
July 2005
The United States Department of Labor has been busy. It has issued two new workplace posting requirements. One poster is currently required and the other will be required soon.
First, employers now must provide employees notice of their rights and obligations under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), the federal military leave law. The new notice is entitled “Your Rights Under USERRA” and can be found at www.dol.gov. Employers may comply with this requirement by posting the notice where other employee notices are customarily posted. The notice may also be distributed to employees by hand, internal or U.S. mail, or email.
We recommend employers post the USERRA notice along with other required posters to ensure that all employees, including new employees, are aware of it. This will also eliminate the administrative burden of distributing the poster to all employees, and reduce the risk of an employee claiming that he/she never saw or received the notice. If an employer chooses to distribute the notice some other way, it is important to document the manner of distribution and collect a receipt of acknowledgement from every employee.
Second, OSHA has issued a new so-called “plain language” workplace poster. The poster is entitled “You Have a Right to a Safe and Healthful Workplace – It's the Law!” (OSHA 3165 for English and OSHA 3167 for Spanish). This will replace OSHA 2203 as supplies of that poster diminish. Employers do not need to replace OSHA 2203 posters, which will continue to be in compliance with OSHA regulations until further notice. We recommend, though, that employers post the new poster sooner than later to ensure compliance. The poster can be found at www.osha.gov. Reproductions or facsimiles must be at least 8 1/2 by 14 inches with 10-point type. As always, the poster must be displayed in a conspicuous place where employees and applicants can see it.