When December rolls around, you may receive a reminder email from the company where you ordered last year’s law poster. You order for the upcoming year, post it and move on.
A recent SHRM article brought up a terrific point. Should we be saving those old posters to prove that we did post and display them as the laws indicate? Yes, in digital form. The suggestion was to take a time and date stamped photo, be sure to show the physical location of your posted and displayed posters to show compliance.
Is it a costly mistake if you fail to display the required posters? Below are a few of the hefty penalties for failing to display these three federally mandated posters:
- $100 for failing to display the Family and Medical Leave Act poster (FMLA).
- $534 for failing to display the Equal Employment Opportunity poster (EEO).
- $12, 675 for failing to display the Occupational Safety and Health Administration poster (OSHA).
Consider state penalties for failing to post required posters. For example, in California, the penalty is $100 per violation including $7,000 for failure to post on Cal/OSHA.
Here are some practical tips for keeping in compliance with your state and federally mandated postings:
- Know what is required posting, beyond the federal requirements, in your county and state and physically display your posters.
- Make sure you post the current year, not the previous or future years.
- Make sure your job applicants can see the posters containing information on the Equal Employment Opportunity, Family and Medical Leave Act and Employee Polygraph Protection Act and any state requirements for job applicants. This includes internet applicants (consider a statement on your job posting website such as, “Applicants have rights under Federal Employment Laws” and provide links to the three mentioned.)
- If you have multiple job sites, ensure all sites have the mandated posters in locations that employees frequent.
- Consider adding all required postings to your organization’s intranet.
- If your organization has employees who speak and read only Spanish, your state may require certain posters be displayed in Spanish as well as English.
- Ensure your posters are displayed in areas that are frequented and can be readily seen by ALL employees.
Originally published in the 2017 Summer 501(c) Agencies Trust HR Newsletter.
