OSHA: New Federal ‘It’s The Law’ Poster

An extreme make-over for OSHA poster, but the revision is NOT required to be replaced if workplaces display the previous version.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released a new version of the Job Safety and Health – It’s The Law! poster.

Although most of the content from the previous version made it into the new format, the posting looks completely different, and the changes were mostly formatting-related.

The GovDocs Research Department confirmed with OSHA that the changes are not mandatory.

To be clear, the posting itself is required for employers to display “in a conspicuous location,” but if your workplace displays the previous version from 2007, OSHA recognizes those postings as compliant.

Employers: Alert your locations! They may receive calls and email solicitations from labor law poster vendors trying to convince them to purchase new federal posters as a result of this new OSHA poster. The purchase is unnecessary unless they have other federal postings out of compliance.

The OSHA poster informs workers of their right to request an OSHA inspection of their workplaces, receive information and training on job hazards, report a work-related injury or illness, and raise safety and health concerns with their employer or OSHA without being retaliated against.

What Changed on the 2015 OSHA Poster?

One of the most striking differences between the two versions is the new two-column format that helps organize information: one half for workers’ rights, and one half for employers’ responsibilities.

Additionally, employers should note the addition of two new bullet points in the employers’ responsibilities column:

• Report to OSHA all work-related fatalities within eight hours, and all inpatient hospitalizations, amputations and losses of an eye within 24 hours
• Provide required training to all workers in a language and vocabulary they can understand

And remember the photo of the lab worker in the breathing mask with the turkey baster? Gone.

In place of the photographic mishmash of workers, OSHA dressed up their posting with some styling line art of blue-collar workers – including a guy holding not one, not two, but three wrenches… enough fun.

OSHA Posting Size Requirements

The full print size of the new PDF version of the OSHA posting is 12.75” x 17.75”, which exceeds the statute requirement of the legal-sized page dimensions of 8.5” x 14.”

If you’re printing out your own version, make sure you’re printing on at least legal-sized paper or on two letter-sized pages that will be displayed together. Also, the statute requires the body content to be at least 10-point type size.

This Employment Law News blog is intended for market awareness only, it is not to be used for legal advice or counsel.