Does Your Nonprofit Meet D.C. Employment Law Posting Requirements?
Nonprofit News, Winter 2023
In October 2022, D.C’s comprehensive ban on noncompete agreements became the latest piece of legislation that imposes new posting and employee notice obligations on District employers. With the new year underway, nonprofit employers should ensure they are complying with these various obligations. . These posters and notifications provide a good overview of the District’s employment laws, and non-compliance may result in fines or other penalties.
Posting Location
The District requires the following posters to be posted in an accessible, conspicuous place in any physical office where your employees report for work. For organizations with no physical premises where any employees report for work, employers can host virtual copies of these posters on an easily and continuously accessible website, intranet page, network drive, or cloud drive and provide employees with clear instructions on how to access the documents; the virtual medium should be one the employer already uses to provide other information to employees, not a novel and unfamiliar site that is otherwise unfamiliar to employees. For hybrid workplaces with some in-person and some fully-remote workers, employers should both post hard copies in their physical premises and provide virtual copies under the guidelines above.
Language Access
D.C. government agencies provide many of the posters and notices below in Spanish and other commonly spoken languages. Some laws require you to provide certain posters and/or notices in the language of your non-English speaking workforce. If you have non-English speaking workers, check with each issuing agency to see if a corresponding translated poster is available.
Federal Requirements
In addition to the D.C. employment law posters listed below, federal statutes including the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and others include poster requirements for some or all employers. The U.S. Department of Labor maintains a website listing federally required posters and has created an online tool to help employers comply with federal poster requirements.
Third-Party Poster Providers
Many commercial and online entities provide “all-in-one” packages of employment law posters covering both D.C. and federal requirements. You are not required to purchase employment law posters – all of which are available for free on government websites – from any particular vendor, but you may decide doing so is a convenient approach. Employment law posters are updated regularly and should be renewed on at least an annual basis.
Required D.C. Employment Posters
• D.C. Office of Human Rights (OHR) Posters
o The required posters are: (1) Equal Employment Opportunity Notice, (2) DC Family and Medical Leave Act with COVID-19 Supplement, (3) DC Parental Leave Act, (4) Protecting Pregnant Workers Act (English and Spanish required), and (5) Right to Breastfeed Notice.
o This poster is for covered employers that receive contracts, grants, loans, or other financing from the District government over $100,000 and subcontractors of these entities.
• Building Service Employees Minimum Work Week Act
o This poster is for employers who employ janitorial, building maintenance, and other building-related employees.
• D.C. Paid Family Leave (PFL)
o Updated in October 2022, this D.C. Department of Employment Services (DOES) poster must be provided no later than February 2023, and posted at every physical worksite where employees work. One notice is not enough for multi-site employers or employers with a multi-floor office.
• D.C. Accrued Sick and Safe Leave Act
• D.C. Voting Leave
o This poster is provided by the D.C. Board of Elections before covered elections.
• Unemployment Insurance Notice to Employees
• Workers’ Compensation Notice of Compliance
Required Employee Notifications
• D.C. Paid Family Leave (PFL): In addition to providing continuous access to the DOES-provided poster, employers must provide a paper or electronic copy of the PFL poster (1) annually, (2) at the time of hiring a new employee, and (3) any time they receive notice from an employee (including oral notice) of a PFL-eligible event for which leave may be necessary.
• Protecting Pregnant Workers Act: In addition to providing continuous access to the OHR-provided poster, employers must provide the poster (in English and Spanish) as a notice to employees (1) when they are hired, and (2) within 10 days of being notified of their employee’s pregnancy or other PPW-covered condition.
• Wage Theft and Prevention Act (“Notice of Hire”): Employers must provide a “Notice of Hire” form conveying information related to their wage basis, wage rate, overtime rate or exemption basis, frequency of pay, and other information (1) whenever an employee is hired, and (2) whenever any of required information on the form changes (e.g. due to raises). DOES has developed template English and Spanish notices.
• Non-Compete Ban Exceptions Notice: D.C.’s comprehensive new ban on non-compete agreements moonlighting restrictions comes with certain statutory exceptions to (1) protect confidential or proprietary information when an employee moonlights or changes jobs, (2) prevent conflict of interest violations that could stem from moonlighting, (3) allow certain long-term incentive agreements that incorporate non-compete requirements, and (4) allow non-compete agreements for certainly highly compensated employees. An employer looking to invoke exceptions 1-3 must provide employees with a policy memorializing the exception:
o within 30 days of an affected employee’s acceptance of employment;
o one time by October 31, 2022, for policies existing before that date; and
o any time the policy changes.
Employers looking to invoke exception 4 must provide the highly compensated employee with a written copy of the non-compete provision within 14 days of executing the agreement (with within 14 days of commencing employment for new employees) and must provide a short statutory disclosure every time a new non-compete provision is proposed.