Display Those Labor Law Posters: Why You Shouldn’t Just ‘Assume the Risk’

We get it, labor law poster compliance can be complicated and confusing, especially for a large company with many locations in different states, counties and cities. However, don’t just assume the risk of having outdated postings.

If you do, you could experience negative consequences, and you’ll be wishing you had just put up those posters in the first place.

Fines

Each poster you fail to display has its own penalty.

For example, failure to post the OSHA-required posting has a fine of only about $100 per offense. However, if you violate the law through more willful negligence, your company could be punished with a maximum fine of $10,000, imprisonment of a maximum of six months, or both.

Alone, these fines may seem manageable. But imagine if you were to receive these fines at each of your locations for multiple posters, each to varying in total fines. This doesn’t include the fines you may owe to the employees themselves if faced with litigation. Ouch.

Litigation

Aside from fines, businesses that fail to post required labor law postings are subject to litigation from employees.

Labor law posters inform employees of their rights, such as paid leave, minimum wage and more. If employees are not made aware of these rights, they can press charges.

This type of litigation can not only cost your business money, but also its reputation. No one wants to be known as a company who neglects employee rights, do they?

Here are a few examples:

  • In 2014, a tech company’s employees sued the company, claiming its rules prohibited workers from talking about the company’s labor conditions with one another.
  • In 2016, a food chain agreed to pay $3.75 million to settle a lawsuit claiming it was liable for labor law violations by a California franchisee.
  • In March 2017, it was announced two celebrity sisters were settling a class-action wage theft lawsuit with their former interns. The interns stated they worked overtime without pay, didn’t receive proper breaks, which led to dehydration, and more.

Service to Employees

You value your employees, so show it. Displaying labor law posters is another way to show your employees you respect them and want them to feel comfortable in the workplace. As stated earlier, labor law posters inform employees of their rights and company policies.

With this transparency, employees will feel you are being honest and not trying to hide anything from them.

Read More

Is your current program compliant with federal, state, city and county labor law postings? Check out the following resources to help you understand how you can improve your company’s employment law management:

This blog was originally published in 2017.

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with GovDocs Labor Law News