New FMLA Poster!

Foreshadowing the May webinar topic (Advanced Issues with the FMLA), last week the Department of Labor (DOL) issued a new Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) poster for covered employers to use. The new poster does not reflect or represent a change in the law, but the agency has streamlined the information presented on the FMLA to employees through this new poster. Think, reading something on Instagram versus reading something in the New York Times. It seems to me that this new poster reflects the DOL essentially Instagraming the FMLA poster for a more attention deficit workforce.

Employers may continue to use the 2013 poster to satisfy the posting requirement. That said, the new poster is noticeably different from previous version. The new version is easier to read. That is good and bad. Easier to read means that employees are more likely to actually read it, which is probably less than ideal. To make the 2016 poster easier to read, however, they removed significant amounts of information about the FMLA and employee entitlement and benefits of the FMLA which muddles up the 2013 poster. So, if you were to have an employee actually read both posters you would probably prefer the new one, though it takes a significant amount of stamina (and reading glasses) to make one’s way through the cumbersome amount of information contained in the earlier version.

The poster is currently available from the Wage and Hour unit of the DOL and you may review and print your own copies (for free) at http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/posters/fmlaen.pdf.

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