A new bill signed by New York Governor Kathy Hochul on December 16th requires employers to make mandatory workplace postings available electronically. The law goes into effect immediately.
Required Postings Under New York Labor Law
The N.Y. Labor Law requires employers display various postings in their worksites, covering topics such as minimum wage, anti-discrimination protections, health-and-safety rights, and workers’ compensation, to name a few. The state’s Department of Labor maintains a list of required postings. Many employers display these postings in a single space, such as a bulletin board.
Bill Requires That Postings Are Made Available Electronically
The new law requires employers to maintain digital versions of all required postings. Employers must make the digital versions available on their website or via email.
Employers must also notify all employees that required postings are available electronically.
Bill Covers Postings and Notices Beyond N.Y. Labor Law
Notably, the bill requires employers to maintain electronic copies of all workplace postings that must be displayed under state or federal law—and not just those postings that are required solely under the state’s Labor Law. In other words: if a poster is legally required to be physically maintained in the worksite, the new law now requires that it is maintained in electronic form, too. For example: employers who maintain a physical copy of the federal Family & Medical Leave Act (“FMLA”) posting should ensure employees have access to a digital copy, too.
Next Steps
The new law presents an opportunity to review which postings and notices are required in your worksite(s). From there, employers should organize electronic copies of required postings. Employers can then evaluate their preferred method for disseminating electronic copies to employees, whether posted to the company intranet or an all-employee email. Employers may also consider updates to employee handbooks, but should take care to consider the differences between required postings compared to policies that implement workplace laws.
Should you need help complying with the new law or have questions, please contact Harris Beach Attorneys Ibrahim Tariq, at (585) 419-8556 or itariq@harrisbeach.com, or Scott Piper at (585) 419-8621 or spiper@harrisbeach.com, both of whom advise employers in all areas of labor and employment law, or the Harris Beach attorney with whom you most frequently work.
This alert is not a substitute for advice of counsel on specific legal issues.
Harris Beach has offices throughout New York state, including Albany, Buffalo, Ithaca, New York City, Rochester, Saratoga Springs, Syracuse, Uniondale and White Plains, as well as Washington D.C., New Haven, Connecticut and Newark, New Jersey.