Employee rights are an important part of the work environment. Federal and state laws are set up to protect employees from hostile work environments and discrimination.

A recent news story highlighted the importance of employee rights. Employers in New Jersey have until Jan. 31, 2012 to post the newly required National Labor Relations Board notices regarding unionization. According to the NLRB, every employer should display a notice informing individuals of their freedom to exercise one of many employee rights — specifically, their right to unionize.

Rules surrounding this poster have been in question since December 2010 when the National Labor Relations Act was passed, requiring companies to display a predesigned notice in this regard. The rules surrounding this have recently been finalized. The NLRB has said that, according to the NLRA, employers are required to ensure that this notice of employee rights is displayed in an obvious place so that employees can see it without having to search for it. This includes any normal bulletin posting areas that a company may use.

Many employers were upset about this, saying that the NLRB did not have the right to require something like this of them. In response, the agency cited a section of the NLRA that they believe shows they have the legislative power to do so. Other requirements surrounding the notice include posting translations in different languages if 20 percent or more of a workforce does not speak English. If there are two or more groups that do not speak English and they total 20 percent of the workforce, the notice must be posted in all of the languages represented.

The NLRB says that they will provide such translations for any employer that requests them.

If an employer does not post this notice, they may be subjected to an unfair labor practice case where their disobeying of the NLRA will be considered as evidence of an unlawful motive.

Source: Business Management Daily, “NLRB issues final employee rights posting rule,” Harold P. Coxson Jr., C. Thomas Davis and Olgetree Deakins, Nov. 20, 2011