The Difference Between Postings and Notices

Welcome to Employment Law Minute, where Jana Bjorklund, GovDocs Senior Counsel and Director, Employment Law and Compliance, provides quick bites of information to help you remain compliant.

In this week’s topic, Jana discusses:

The Difference Between Postings and Notices

Hello and welcome to GovDocs’ Employment Law Minute. Today we’ll provide a brief overview of the difference between postings and notices.

Employer Requirements

Employers are required to provide employees with information on their rights under certain federal, state, and local employment laws.

Depending on the requirement of the specific law, this is done through a labor law posting that must be continuously posted in the workplace (posting) or a notice that must be provided to each employee individually (notice).

Labor Law Poster Updates. Simplified.

Postings

Postings are the mandated employment law information that must be displayed in a conspicuous place in the workplace frequented by all employees.

This generally means a physical poster on a wall in the workplace. However, the U.S. Department of Labor issued guidance regarding electronic postings for federal employment law postings in December 2020 due to the COVID-19-driven remote work across the country.

Federal law postings may be delivered electronically to remote work employees when:

• All employees work exclusively from home
• All employees customarily receive information from the employer electronically
• All employees always have access to the electronic posting

Still, electronic postings are not a substitute for physical postings in the workplace, and if the employer has employees working both on-site and remotely, the physical postings are still required but may be supplemented by electronic postings for workers who are working 100 percent remote.

If an employee works remote part of the time and is in the office otherwise, the physical posting is sufficient for those employees.

If an employer uses electronic postings, the employer needs to take reasonable steps to inform employees how to access electronic postings to remain in compliance. Employees need to be able to easily determine which electronic posting is applicable to them and their workplace. Note though, state and local laws may have differing requirements regarding electronic postings.

There are also postings that must be visible to job applicants and electronic-only posting is permitted if the company’s hiring process is handled remotely and applicants can readily access the posting at any time.

Notices

Some employment laws require employers to provide employees with a notice regarding their rights and other detailed information under certain employment laws.

Notices are specific documents that must be provided to each employee individually. Notices generally may be provided in hard copy or electronically via email if employees customarily receive similar information from the employer electronically.

To confuse things, employers may comply with some notice requirements by posting the notice in the workplace in the same area where postings are displayed. However, this varies with each specific law — make sure of the requirements before you take this approach for any notice.

Thanks for joining us for this week’s Employment Law Minute. Check back again for more information regarding your employment law compliance needs.

Do you have a question about employment law compliance? Email us at andrew.lahr@govdocs.com to have your query considered.

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