DOL addresses posting requirements for virtual workplaces

Recognizing remote work is here to stay for many employees, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued guidance on how employers can use virtual means to distribute and maintain the various posters required by federal employment laws.

Background

Several federal laws, including the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA), require employers to post a notice of employee rights in a conspicuous location. The FLSA, for example, requires employers to post a DOL-issued notice “in every establishment where such employees are employed so as to permit them to observe readily a copy.” The FMLA goes even further, mandating the notice be “posted prominently where it can be readily seen by employees and applicants for employment.”

Traditionally, employers have satisfied the various notice requirements by placing posters on bulletin boards in well-trafficked locations such as break rooms or lobbies. Because many of the laws were passed decades before the first portable computer (the FLSA dates back to 1938), few of them specifically address the concept of distributing notices through electronic means.

Key takeaways from DOL’s new five-page bulletin