Employers are well aware of the requirement to post various notices from the EEOC, DOL, and other acronym-bearing state and federal agencies.  Unfortunately, many employers have a “post it and forget it” mentality and fail to regularly update those posters and required notices.

These agencies, however, are often issuing updated required postings and employers who fail to heed those requirements can be assessed fines and potentially face criminal charges.  In California alone, there were 40 mandatory changes in 2017 and more than 30 mandatory changes in the first seven months of 2018, with more on the way.

A few recent noteworthy changes for employers in California and New York City deserve attention:

  • The California Employment Development Department has made a mandatory change to the notice to employees that provides information about unemployment insurance, disability insurance, and paid family leave. The EDD released this new, mandatory posting on July 3, 2018, although the revision date is May 2018.

    California employers should print the updated notice and post it where employee notices are generally posted.  The new notice (EDD 1857A) is available in both English and Spanish and may be downloaded here.

  • Beginning September 6, 2018, the “Stop Sexual Harassment in NYC Act” requires all employers with employees working in New York City to post a formal notice in a conspicuous location on their premises and distribute a fact sheet to newly hired employees. These documents, issued by the New York City Commission on Human Rights, provide information on the Act, as well as on what constitutes sexual harassment, how to report sexual harassment, and where to find additional resources.

The NYC legal notice can be downloaded here.

The NYC fact sheet is available here.

In addition to making these required updates, all employers should develop and maintain a tracking system to regularly check for mandatory updates for both federal and state postings and replace any out of date notices.