The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has released an FAQ guidance to accompany its newly revamped “Know Your Rights” poster, a workplace poster that replaces its previous “EEO is the Law” poster.
The agency initially released the poster Oct. 19, but removed that version from its site and uploaded a revised version Oct. 20. Employers who printed the Oct. 19 version should likewise remove it from the workplace and replace it with the Oct. 20 version, EEOC said.
The poster should be placed “in a conspicuous location in the workplace where notices to applicants and employees are customarily posted,” EEOC directed in its guidance.
Regarding employers whose employees have hybrid or remote working arrangements, employers should use “specific locations where their applicants and employees are most likely to see the poster — such as physical posting in common areas, digital posting on an internal website, or both,” Victor Chen, acting associate director of the EEOC’s Office of Communications and Legislative Affairs, told HR Dive in an email.
Chen also pointed to language from the poster webpage: “In addition to physically posting, covered employers are encouraged to post the notice digitally on their web sites in a conspicuous location. In most cases, electronic posting supplements the physical posting requirement. In some situations (for example, for employers without a physical location or for employees who telework or work remotely and do not visit the employer's workplace on a regular basis), it may be the only posting.”
While the poster should be displayed “within a reasonable amount of time,” EEOC spokesperson Joseph Olivares confirmed to HR Dive that there isn’t a specific date employers must adhere to. Rather, they should hang the new poster “as soon as possible,” he said.
Notably, EEOC has released some versions of the poster tailored for specific employee groups; visually impaired or blind workers should have access to the screen-reader optimized PDF version, and the agency has released a Spanish-language version as well. The poster will be available in additional languages in the future, the agency said.
