You’re keeping current with all labor law postings impacting your business, so you’re fully compliant, right? Not necessarily. Beyond workplace postings, U.S. employers must also distribute notifications directly to employees under specific circumstances. These mandatory employee handouts are often overlooked, which can put your business at risk.
Learn more about the five biggest compliance considerations with these handouts, including a recently expanded service that will keep you current year-round.
1) Not knowing they are mandatory
It is required, by law, to inform employees of their legal rights in certain situations. To be clear: These notifications are not optional! Nationwide, there are currently more than 400 mandated employee notices. And this number is growing, due to state, county and city jurisdictions having the authority to issue their own employee notifications.
2) Not recognizing qualifying events
The reasons for providing these handouts vary widely. Depending on the underlying law, some notices may be required for all employees — either annually or on some other schedule. Others are event-driven, which means you must distribute them when a specific activity occurs. For example:
- Upon hiring
- Change in pay or status
- Open enrollment
- Requests for leave
- Requests for legally protected time off
- Workplace injuries
- Pregnancy
The Mandatory Employee Handout Service is a practical, cost-effective solution to inform your employees of their legal rights and protect your business.
3) Not understanding the legal implications
The penalties for noncompliance with handout regulations can be as severe as labor law postings – more than $24,000 per violation for failing to provide required notices or using outdated notices. On state, county and city levels, the fines typically range from $100-$500 per violation.
While fines can be costly, the bigger danger is the risk of employee lawsuits. Under some laws, you can lose certain defenses if you fail to notify your employees of their rights. The statute of limitations, for example, limits the timeframe during which an employee can sue an employer for a particular offense. In recent years, courts have increasingly extended the statute of limitations in cases where an employer did not give proper notice of employee rights. This can also lead to larger judgments just because notices were not distributed at the right times.
4) Not keeping up with the changes
Like postings, these notifications change frequently. In fact, employers can expect as many as 200 changes in just one year. Further complicating the matter is that you’re rarely, if ever, notified of these changes. This puts the burden entirely on your business to research and monitor changing requirements.
5) Not exploring support services for compliance
Fortunately, you don’t have to bear this burden. You can easily manage this growing compliance responsibility with the Mandatory Employee Handout Service, developed by the same legal experts behind Poster Guard® Poster Compliance Service from HRdirect. Available in two service levels — Basic for federal and state-level notices and Premium that also includes county, city and event-triggered notices — this affordable solution ensures complete, year-round compliance. You receive immediate, 24/7 electronic access to all required employee handouts for your business location, as well as practical instruction on when and how to use each notification.
