Meeting Workers' Compensation Information Posting Requirements
Employers are required to post information about workers' compensation somewhere where it is accessible to employees on a daily basis. These notices are meant to ensure that employees are aware of their rights to compensation for on-the-job injuries.
Though requirements vary slightly by state, it's generally required that these notices be made clearly visible and located in a place that employees frequent regularly. In some states, the law even specifies how large posters must be. For example, Colorado law requires that posters must be at least 14 inches high and 11 inches wide.
Employers are also expected to notify new hires of the information contained on these notices and tell new hires where posters are located at the workplace.
Required information
Information that must be on these posters includes the name of the employer's provider of workers' compensation insurance. If an employer is self insured, notices must indicate this to employees.
The notices should explain what an employee should do in the event of a workplace injury. They should tell employees who should be notified and how soon notification is required after the injury for a workers' compensation claim to be valid.
Also, notices must detail who the claims adjustment authority will be for claims filed by company employees. Notices must explain to employees that they have a legal right to medical treatment for workplace injuries.
Posting challenges
It's usually easy for larger, centrally administered companies to meet posting requirements. However, small businesses without a central office might have trouble. Also, business owners with employees who work remotely might be unsure of how they can provide their staff members with the required information.
Meeting requirements without a centralized workplace
Posters should ideally be placed at the location where employees report for work. If your company has multiple worksites, you probably should place posters at each individual worksite to make sure you're meeting requirements.
If your company doesn't have a centralized office, the best thing to do is send the posters out to employees. You can send out actual hard copies of posters. Alternatively, you may be able to simply send out a link to a webpage where the posters are available online. In many states, the department of labor website will include pages that display the required posters. If so, you can send employees a link and instruct them to print out their own copies of required posters. Then, you can have employees sign and return an acknowledgement that states that they have received and read the posters.
For legal help with workers' compensation, contact a legal office like Franco Law Firm.