As more employment laws are passed on the state, county and city level, there is a new development impacting the legal load placed on employers. It used to be that employment laws only required businesses to display a poster to inform employees of their rights. Then, many laws were passed necessitating a posting and a corresponding employee handout.

“Now we’re seeing an abundance of new laws being passed requiring handouts only, without posters,” says Ashley Kaplan, Lead Compliance Attorney for ComplyRight. “Many of these newer requirements allow for digital delivery of the notifications.”

Understanding Employee Notifications

If you’re unfamiliar with employee notifications (also known as handouts), these fast facts will get you up to speed:

• Nationwide, there are more than 400 potential federal and state notices, based on specific employee-related events
• The requirements vary by state and municipality
• Notices apply to all employees, including remote workers
• There are as many as 14 required handouts on a federal level, up to 20 additional handouts by state and several more depending on your city/county
• Like labor law posters, employee notices change frequently; in the past year there were more than 50 mandatory updates

“Depending on the law, some notices are required to be distributed to all newly hired employees,” Kaplan says. “Other notices are triggered by specific incidents, such as requests for leave or job-protected time off, workplace injuries, pregnancy, wage changes and termination.”

Permitting Electronic Transmission

As previously mentioned, many of the new employee notification laws are allowing electronic delivery. This seems to be an acknowledgment by the government that posters may not be the most effective means of communicating important information to employees.

“Additionally, this appears to be part of the movement by many agencies to minimize administrative and compliance burdens on employers,” Kaplan says. “This is based on the assumption that electronic delivery of notices is less work than displaying a poster and updating it whenever the law changes.”

However, these employee handouts still present a compliance burden. This is due to the amount of mandatory notices required, the growing complexity at the local level and the increasing rate of the changes. Plus, the government doesn’t notify businesses of these requirements – or when they change.

Exploring the New Laws

To give you a clearer understanding of employee notification guidelines, here are just a few examples of new laws that require handouts without mandatory postings:

• Minnesota Wage Theft Employee Notice: Effective July 1, 2019, all businesses must provide employees with a written notice at the start of employment. The notice must contain required information about the worker’s employment status and terms of employment. Employers must retain signed copies and provide the notice in another language if requested. Employers also are required to provide employees in writing any changes to the information in the notice before the change takes effect.
• New York City, New York Lactation Accommodation Policy: Effective March 17, 2019, businesses with four or more employees must provide one of the three New York City lactation accommodation notices to current employees and all new hires.
• Oregon Sexual Harassment Notice: Effective October 1, 2020, businesses must implement a written policy detailing procedures to help prevent discrimination and harassment. The law requires employers to provide a copy to all employees when hired and when an individual makes a complaint.

Meeting the Legal Requirements

“Mandatory employee handouts function similar to labor law postings, with the same challenges for employers,” Kaplan says. “They vary from state to state, they change frequently, they must be researched and tracked down through various agencies, and they carry legal risk for failure to comply.”

Fortunately, help managing these complexities is available. And it’s much easier than trying to juggle all the regulations all by yourself. Handling posting compliance can incur costs — both directly and indirectly — and it requires a significant amount of time (especially if you have businesses in multiple locations).

The Mandatory Employee Handout Service is an annual service that gives you access to the required federal, state, city and county employee notifications. The notices can be emailed to employees or printed and distributed. The service provides continual legal monitoring, as well as automatic updates whenever requirements change. You’ll receive email communications about any updates plus instructions to identify which handouts to use and when.

For more information about your legal requirements, check out our free download on mandatory employee handouts. It will give you critical information on how to keep your company in compliance.