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Do You Contract With The Government? You May Need To Tell Your Employees That They Can Form A Union

By Brian Harris

By Eric B. Meyer

Special to the Legal

As of June 21, many federal contractors and subcontractors are required to post notices educating their employees about their right to form, join and support a union and to bargain collectively with their employer. Also, this notice should indicate how employees can contact the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency that enforces those rights, with questions or to file complaints.

Where must these notices be posted? According to the United States Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards, or OLMS, they should be posted where employees are sure to read them.

Contractors and subcontractors must post the employee notice conspicuously in and around their plants and offices so that it is prominent and readily seen by employees. In particular, contractors and subcontractors must post the notice where other notices to employees about their jobs are posted.

Additionally, contractors and subcontractors who post notices to employees electronically must also post the required notice electronically, via a link to the OLMS website. When posting electronically, the link to the notice must be placed where the contractor customarily places other electronic notices to employees about their jobs. The link can be no less prominent than other employee notices. Electronic posting cannot be used as a substitute for physical posting.

Violate the notice requirement and very harsh sanctions will follow, such as suspension or cancellation of an existing contract, debarment from future Federal contracts and subcontracts, and inclusion on a banned contractor list.

More information about these posting requirements may be found here.

Don?t be surprised if organized labor places more federal contractors and subcontractors in its crosshairs. Is your business prepared for the threat of unionization? To be certain, check out this article.

Eric B. Meyer is a member of the Labor and Employment Group at Dilworth Paxson LLP. Readers can contact Eric Meyer via e-mail and follow him on Twitter.

[This posting is for informational purposes and should not be construed or interpreted as either legal advice on any matter or as in any way creating an attorney/client relationship]

Full post as published by The Legal Intelligencer Blog on July 09, 2010 (boomark / email).