Empower Your Employees With Compliance Publications, Postings

Publications

The Indiana Chamber publishes more than 25 Indiana-specific compliance guides that cover employers’ rights and responsibilities under state and federal laws. These publications will aid your team with compliance issues to avoid costly fines and penalties. Many are also available as ePubs.

One of the most popular is the Employment Law Handbook. The soon-to-be-released 13th edition includes everything employers need to know to stay in compliance with state and federal employment laws.

Among updates:

  • Protections and terms of the new federal Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016
  • The Seventh Circuit Federal Court of Appeals finding that discrimination based upon sexual orientation violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964
  • Updated penalties and fees for immigration violations
  • Changes to the law regarding the employment of foreign nationals and the issuance of visas
  • The National Labor Relations Board’s new decision permitting graduate and undergraduate teaching assistants to unionize

“We want to be the provider for every Indiana business for their employer publications and postings. The Indiana Chamber is the trusted source for that,” remarks Kerri Begley, vice president of business education and events. “We offer a free poster subscription service. Once new postings come out, if you were part of the subscription service, you automatically get that update shipped to you.”

Don’t miss the opportunity to stay informed with mandatory postings on state and federal laws.

Another fall release is the Environmental Compliance Handbook. It contains updated agency contact information, details on the new wastewater management rule, information about biomass and alternative fuels registrations and more.

Sales team veteran Rhea Langdon and new addition Derrence Foster are working hard to connect you with these resources.

To order, access www.indianachamber.com/publications or call Nick at (800) 824-6885.

Poster Fines Increased in 2017

Fines for outdated workplace posters have increased recently in accordance with the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015. (The law requires federal agencies to adjust penalties for inflation each January.)

Here are the current maximum civil penalties for not posting:

  • Employee Polygraph Protection Act poster – $20,111 (up from $19,787)
  • Job Safety and Health: It’s the Law (OSHA) poster – $12,675 (up from $12,471)
  • EEOC poster – $534 (up from $525)
  • Family and Medical Leave Act poster – $166 (up from $163)

UPDATES
Required updates were made to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA) workplace posters in 2016:

FLSA: Effective August 1, 2016, a new FLSA poster is required. The update includes new information about the overtime rule, independent contractors and nursing mothers. Outdated fine information was also removed.

EPPA: Also effective August 1, the EPPA poster was updated. Outdated fine information was also removed from this poster and contact information was updated.

FMLA: The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) posting was updated in April 2016 to be more reader-friendly. This update is included in our latest sets.

You can purchase posters online now!

Or, are you tired of trying to keep up with poster changes? We’re happy to take the pressure off at no added cost. Just subscribe to our convenient, free subscription service online or by calling (800) 824-6885. You’ll get new posters whenever there’s a required update without even having to order! You’ll join hundreds of other Indiana businesses already benefiting from this service.

New Required Federal Poster Updates – Effective Immediately!

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It was recently announced that required updates have been made to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA) posters (effective in August). We are now shipping our new poster sets that include these updates! Here are the changes reflected on our new sets:

  • FLSA: Effective August 1, 2016, a new FLSA poster is required. The update includes new information about the overtime rule, independent contractors and nursing mothers. Outdated fine information was also removed.
  • EPPA: Also effective August 1, the EPPA poster will be updated. Outdated fine information was also removed from this poster and contact information was updated.
  • FMLA: The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) posting was updated in April 2016 to be more reader-friendly. This update is included in our latest sets.

You can purchase new sets online.

Or, are you tired of trying to keep up with poster changes? We’re happy to take the pressure off at no added cost. Just subscribe to the Indiana Chamber’s convenient, free subscription service online or by calling (800) 824-6885. You’ll get new posters whenever there’s a required update without even having to order! You’ll join hundreds of other Indiana businesses already benefiting from this service.

Hendricks Power Cooperative: Maximizing Its Chamber Investment Through Compliance Resources

Lenardson_DebLearning the ropes when starting a new job is always challenging. Imagine your position changing soon thereafter to encompass the vast world of human resources.

Nearly a decade after launching her career at Hendricks Power Cooperative (located in Avon, it provides electricity and energy services to 30,000-plus members in west central Indiana), HR director Deb Lenardson credits the Indiana Chamber with helping to ease the transition.

She points to regulatory compliance publications, which cover worker’s compensation, the Family Medical Leave Act and a variety of other employment law topics.

“I wasn’t hired into HR, but after about three months I was hired into (an HR) position, which is kind of why those books became so important,” Lenardson emphasizes. “I was new and learning. They’re great, reliable resources for us.

“When I’m looking for local information about Indiana, that’s where I go because so many of my other resources (offered elsewhere) are more generalized on a national level.”

The Chamber’s free poster subscription service also fuels Lenardson’s compliance efforts. When there is a significant change to any mandatory Indiana or federal employment postings, the Chamber automatically sends subscribers the revised poster set(s) with an invoice for the postings.

“I love that because I don’t have to worry about, ‘Am I going to keep my required posters up-to-date?’ ” she declares. “Anything I can have that helps me just keep things moving along without having to be reactive – I can be proactive with those things. I love that.”

New Indiana Fair Employment Poster a Required Change

The Indiana Fair Employment Poster (released by the Indiana Civil Rights Commission) has been changed to add veterans as a protected category and prevent discrimination against them. This stems from House Enrolled Act 1242.

It is against the public policy of the state and a discriminatory practice for an employer to discriminate against a prospective employee on the basis of status as a veteran by:
(1) refusing to employ an applicant for employment on the basis that the applicant is a veteran of the armed forces of the United States; or
(2) refusing to employ an applicant for employment on the basis that the applicant is a member of the Indiana National Guard or member of a reserve component.

We are updating our poster sets to comply with this mandatory change.

You can order our new Indiana state/federal poster sets online, or contact customer service at (800) 824-6885 or customerservice@indianachamber.com.

Better yet, make life much easier for yourself and join our FREE poster subscription service!

Mandatory FMLA Poster Update Issued!

The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) recently issued a final rule implementing new regulations regarding FMLA protections. These new rules require that employers covered under the FMLA post an updated FMLA posting.

“The first expansion provides families of eligible veterans with the same job-protected FMLA leave currently available to families of military service members and it also enables more military families to take leave for activities that arise when a service member is deployed,” according to the DOL. “The second expansion modifies existing rules so that airline personnel and flight crews are better able to make use of the FMLA’s protections.”

The regulations were revised to implement statutory amendments to the FMLA that occurred under the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 and the Airline Flight Crew Technical Corrections Act. They take effect March 8, 2013.

Our new poster sets are in production. You can order new sets on our web site or call (800) 824-6885. Or better yet, join hundreds of Hoosier businesses by signing up for our poster subscription service. With this service, we'll just send you new poster sets when MANDATORY changes are made. This gives you peace of mind of not having to track updates to keep your company in compliance. The service itself costs nothing extra; you just pay for the posters as you normally would. (Poster sets are $45 each and Indiana Chamber members receive 25% off.)

** The FMLA poster is required for all covered employers, which means those with 50 or more employees. Public agencies and public and private elementary and secondary schools are also covered regardless of the number of employees.

NLRB Developments This Week

Here are a couple key developments from the NLRB within the last week. If you’re a business owner, prepare to be annoyed:

Mandatory Posting Requirement
The National Labor Relations Board decided Friday to delay the required posting date of its new NLRB posting yet again — this time until April 30, 2012 (it was previously January 31, 2012). The NLRB’s web site reports:

  • The National Labor Relations Board has agreed to postpone the effective date of its employee rights notice-posting rule at the request of the federal court in Washington, DC hearing a legal challenge regarding the rule. The Board’s ruling states that it has determined that postponing the effective date of the rule would facilitate the resolution of the legal challenges that have been filed with respect to the rule. The new implementation date is April 30, 2012.

Rules Regarding Union Elections
Baker & Daniels reports: 

The National Labor Relations Board (Board) has formally adopted a final rule that will expedite the pre-election process and limit the post-election process in union representation cases. The rule will be published in the Federal Register on December 22, 2011, and is due to take effect on April 20, 2012.

As we previously informed you, the Board enacted this rule, which will significantly impede an employer’s right to communicate with its employees and petition the government for redress, while faced with the prospect of losing its quorum at the end of 2011. The rule focuses primarily on union representation cases in which parties cannot agree on issues such as whether the employees the union seeks to represent are an appropriate voting group. It significantly changes existing procedures in these types of cases by limiting the issues to be determined in the pre-election process and precluding pre-election review of regional office decisions in most cases. This rule will likely mean that elections are held in a much shorter timeframe.

It is expected that a variety of pro-business advocacy groups will pursue litigation in an attempt to overturn the new rules.

Unions will most likely be emboldened by the Board’s action, and it may spark an increase in union organizing. To remain union free, it is increasingly important for employers to focus on positive-employee relations and supervisory training.

Ready for the Minimum Wage Increase in July?

In July, the minimum wage will change from $6.55 to $7.25 according to federal law (as part of the three-year, stair step increase implemented in 2007). You need to make sure your company’s mandatory employment postings include those changes. Ours do.

Here are the changes we made when we published new poster sets in January:

  • FMLA notice (updated in January)
  • Indiana Minimum Wage notice (our sets feature updated overtime requirements that will still be in compliance when minimum wage increases in July)
  • Federal USERRA notice (updated October 2008)
  • Federal Equal Employment Opportunity notice (updated August 2008)
  • Poster sets are $45 each, and Indiana Chamber members receive a 25% discount.

To place your order, call us at (800) 824-6875 or visit our web site.

Please mention POSTBLOG509 when ordering.

The Intern Chronicles: Rockin’ Out for Compliance

I got an e-mail Monday afternoon about an event starting the next day that would continue throughout the rest of the week. It was referred to as a “massive poster shipping party.”  These four words didn’t really seem to go together, but I was pleased to be invited nonetheless.

 The e-mail explained that people could help as they were able — purely on a volunteer basis — and that free pizza would be provided to show appreciation. There were also a few more paragraphs, but I didn’t really read much after the "free pizza" part.

 I was in our conference center for most of the next couple days, helping to prepare a shipment of the latest labor law compliance posters (you know, the laminated ones you’ve pretended to be interested in during awkward breakroom encounters). The process involved rolling the posters up and stuffing them into tubes, which were then sealed and slapped with a shipping sticker. Since the work didn’t require a great deal of concentration, the atmosphere was pretty relaxed and we got to watch DVDs on the conference center screens. The women took the helm for media selection, which meant that we rolled and stuffed to the likes of "Footloose" and "Jon Bon Jovi Live."

 Sometimes when you’re blocking out sensory information, you tend to focus on material you’d normally overlook. I became quite familiar with the content of the labor law posters, and if you haven’t updated yours in a while, you may want to do the same. Recent updates to the posters include:

• Military Leave Notice added due to Family Medical Leave Act amendment
• Federal Minimum Wage increase; 2007, 2008 and 2009 wages given
• Child Labor Law phone numbers updated and layout changed
• Indiana Minimum Wage updated on state posters to reflect new federal wage

So as I head into July 4th weekend, I just hope my festivities aren’t interrupted by Bon Jovi tunes running through my brain.

And as for your compliance needs: You might be thinking, “I don’t have to get new posters. It’s My Life.” However, not having updated posters is against the law. You’re Livin’ on a Prayer if you don’t have them displayed, and getting nabbed for it can be a shot through the heart. Bah!