Avoiding Labor Law Poster Scams Tips To Save Businesses Time And Money
All employers are required by law to display labor law posters-but how do business owners know that the posters they use are authentic and up to date? It’s a challenge facing millions of businesses, many of which have lost money to poster scam artists.
Here’s how the con works: A scam artist visits a business posing as a government agent, or mails an official-looking solicitation to a business. Business owners are led to believe-often wrongly-that the labor law posters they are displaying are not in compliance with current regulations. The business owner is then strong-armed into paying excessive fees for outdated or unnecessary posters.
Protecting Your Business
Business owners can avoid labor law poster scams by partnering with a qualified poster provider. Legitimate third-party poster sellers offer an easy way to save time, avoid scams, and keep businesses in compliance with current laws.
“Qualified poster providers notify businesses only when mandatory updates are required,” noted Ashley Kaplan, compliance attorney with G.Neil, which offers Poster Guard Compliance Protection, an automatic poster updating service. The company employs labor attorneys and legal researchers to continually monitor and properly interpret regulatory changes, and guarantees its posters are 100 percent compliant with state and federal employee posting laws.
10 Tips to Find a Legitimate Poster Provider:
1) Check with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) to verify the seller’s quality and service standards.
2) Thoroughly investigate any business without a BBB rating, as this may indicate an unproven track record.
3) Choose a partner that understands both state and federal laws. Businesses have to keep track of up to 16 federal and state postings issued by up to seven different agencies.
4) Confirm that the seller employs labor law attorneys to interpret regulatory changes.
5) Ask for written assurance that the posters meet exact agency specifications for font size, poster size, color and layout.
6) Choose a poster provider that guarantees unlimited protection from fines.
7) Before purchasing updated posters, verify with the issuing government agency that the update is truly “mandatory.”
8) Be suspicious of misleading poster offers that appear to be from the government.
9) If you are visited by someone posing as a government agent, ask to see credentials. Never buy posters from a door-to-door salesperson.
10) Report fraudulent incidents to the state attorney general.