Heads Up for Federal Contractors: Notify Workers About Their Union Rights

If you work for a federal contractor with $100,000 or more in federal contracts, or a federal subcontractor with $10,000 or more, you must now put up a new poster telling your workers about their rights under the National Labor Relations Act, the federal law that governs the relationships among private sector employers, employees, and unions. The new poster describes employees’ right to organize a union and collectively bargain with their employer, gives examples of union and employer conduct that interferes with employee rights, and tells employees how to contact the National Labor Relations Board with questions or to file complaints if they believe their rights have been violated.


You can download the notice from the Department of Labor’s website and print it out for posting. In addition to physical posting, if your company posts notices to employees electronically, you must include this notice electronically via the link above. Electronic posting cannot be used as a substitute for physical posting. If a significant number of your employees do not speak English well, you must also post translated versions of the notice, which will be provided by the Department of Labor. The Department of Labor  has published a Fact Sheet that explains the new posting requirements in detail.
The deadline for putting up the poster is June 21, 2010. Contractors who do not comply may have existing contracts suspended or cancelled and may be declared ineligible for future contracts.

What this means to you:

Even if you do not work for a federal contractor or subcontractor, now is a good time to review your workplace posters and make sure all required notices are there, and are up to date. You can review the Department of Labor poster website and the EEOC poster website and download the required items. Don’t forget to check state employment law posting requirements, as well.  Finally, in New Jersey and several other  states, employers which are places of public accommodation (dental and medical offices, retail stores, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, movie theaters, etc.) must also display an anti-discrimination poster for their customers, and real estate agencies or brokers, property management offices, and landlords must put up similar posters for their tenants and clients.  All the NJ posters are available here.