Last month, I broke the story about a company that was selling various employment law posters online, and the Connecticut government’s response to the posters.  A post recapping all events with links to all prior posts is located here.  

One poster, in particular, dealt with a "Healthcare Advocate" poster. At that time, the company’s website stated specifically  "New Poster February 2008! Employers are required to display this poster. Lists employee’s rights to health insurance under Connecticut."

As of my last prior post, last month, the company, Progressive Business Compliance had not made any changes to their website nor did they provide any public comment. While I’ve been tied up the past few weeks, their website for this poster has now changed. 

Their website for this poster  now reads: "New Poster February 2008! Employers are REQUIRED to display this poster.  Lists the services of the Office of the Healthcare Advocate under Connecticut Law, and gives contact information for employees."  However, the company still charges $12.99 for the poster. 

Employer and human resources professionals may still wish to exercise caution about using this particular poster. First, this poster — while apparently "new" to the company — is not new at all. It has been a requirement for a while. Second, in response to our prior post, Connecticut’s Office of Healthcare Advocate now has the exact poster available on their website.  You can download it directly from here.  Third, and most importantly, it’s available free of charge. 

I’ll leave it to the Attorney General to determine whether its a fair trade practice to sell a free government poster for $12.99.  Perhaps it contains a protective plastic cover.   And as I noted previously, these companies can provide a service to employers by combining various posters onto one laminated poster.  For some employers, it is a service worth paying for. 

But for employers who just want to comply with this particular law without any bells and whistles, the OHA’s poster that can be downloaded free of charge will suffice just fine. 

Of course, there are other posters that must be posted as well, so employers should check with an attorney to determine if they are meeting all the legal posting requirements. 

Lastly, I have been meaning to post about another website that summarized our prior posts on workplace posters quite well.   Lawroom.com posted about it here.  Each week, Lawroom sends out an email broadcast to several thousand HR and business subscribers (primarily in California, but also nationwide and in other states). They cover case, legislative, and regulatory developments, as well as interesting news stories. They also discuss “recurring” issues in employment law – including the need for mandatory posters.  My sincere thanks to them for the reference.  Please do check them out.