Failure to post the required Employee Rights Under the National Labor Relations Act Poster, also known as the NLRA Poster, can result in an unfair labor practice charge from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), putting your business at legal risk. This federal mandate is enforced in Warren, Michigan, by the NLRB's Regional Office 7 (Detroit). There are no government filing fees for this poster, but processing and enforcement timelines vary based on complaint. ApronPrep auto-fills 11 of the 13 fields required to generate the compliant version, saving you from manual errors. Most applicants complete this process in under 15 minutes with ApronPrep's template.
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The Employee Rights Under the National Labor Relations Act Poster (also called the NLRA Poster or Federal Labor Law Notice) is mandated for most private sector employers by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) under the authority of the NLRA. The legal requirement stems from a 2011 NLRB rule, codified in its regulations. While there is no state-specific ordinance in Warren, Michigan, employers located there must comply with this federal requirement, as the NLRB's jurisdiction covers nearly all private businesses affecting interstate commerce. The poster itself, available directly from the NLRB, informs employees of their rights to organize, bargain collectively, and engage in other protected concerted activities.
Failure to display this poster can be considered an unfair labor practice. The National Labor Relations Board investigates complaints and can order significant remedies, though it cannot directly assess monetary fines against employers. The primary consequences focus on rectifying the violation and making employees whole:
Legal code: National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)
Recent update: The NLRB has not issued a major update to the poster design or rule since 2011, but employers should verify the current version is posted, as the Board's General Counsel priorities and enforcement approaches can shift.
| Type | Required | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Restaurant (Full-Service) | Required | Covered under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) as an employer affecting interstate commerce with gross revenue exceeding $500,000, a standard virtually all such restaurants meet. |
| Bar / Nightclub | Required | Typically required due to the NLRA's jurisdictional standards for non-retail businesses, which cover bars with gross outflow of at least $50,000 per year. |
| Food Truck | Required | Most food truck operations meet or exceed the NLRA's non-retail jurisdictional standard of $50,000 in gross outflow, requiring the poster if they have employees. |
| Coffee Shop / Café | Required | Covered as a retail establishment under the NLRA, as gross annual volume of business likely exceeds the $500,000 threshold. |
See which restaurant types need this requirement — and which don't.
See Full Requirements →Select 'Yes' if your business currently hires, employs, or contracts with any individuals for work, as the NLRA poster is required for all covered employers with one or more employees, excluding certain exempt categories like agricultural laborers and supervisors.
COMMON MISTAKE: Selecting 'No' because you consider contractors or part-time workers to not be 'employees'—under the NLRA, coverage is broad and includes most paid workers, and incorrectly claiming no employees can lead to non-compliance findings.
Select your business classification (e.g., Private Employer, Labor Organization, Federal Contractor) from the provided list, which determines your specific poster version and any additional posting requirements under Executive Order 13496 for government contractors.
COMMON MISTAKE: Choosing the default or incorrect classification (e.g., selecting 'Private Employer' when you hold a federal contract), which results in displaying the wrong poster content and failing to meet all legal obligations.
Confirm you have successfully obtained the official 'Employee Rights Under the National Labor Relations Act' poster from the NLRB website or an approved source, as using outdated or unofficial versions is a common compliance failure.
COMMON MISTAKE: Selecting 'Yes' after downloading an old poster from a third-party site—the NLRB updates the poster, and using a superseded version does not satisfy the posting requirement.
Specify the physical size (typically 11x17 inches) or digital format of the poster you will display, as the NLRB requires it to be in a 'conspicuous place' and readily visible to all employees.
COMMON MISTAKE: Selecting an incorrect size (e.g., 8.5x11) that makes the text illegible from a reasonable distance, which can be cited as non-compliant during an investigation.
Indicate the language version(s) of the poster you will post, such as English or Spanish; if a significant portion of your workforce is not proficient in English, the NLRB may require posting in the language(s) they understand.
COMMON MISTAKE: Only selecting 'English' when you have a sizable number of Spanish-speaking employees with limited English proficiency, failing to provide adequate notice as required by NLRB guidance.
Select 'Yes' if your business operates from a brick-and-mortar location, office, or facility where employees report for work, as this triggers the requirement to physically post the notice in a common area.
COMMON MISTAKE: Selecting 'No' because the primary office is remote but you maintain a storage unit or small office—any physical space where employees may gather or receive communications qualifies.
List the exact, conspicuous places where the poster is or will be displayed (e.g., 'Break room bulletin board next to time clock,' 'Main entrance hallway'), as vagueness here can indicate inadequate posting.
COMMON MISTAKE: Entering generic descriptions like 'in the office' or 'on a wall,' which lack the specificity needed to demonstrate compliance and can be challenged during a routine inspection or unfair labor practice charge.
Select 'Yes' if any employees regularly work from home, a satellite location, or do not report to a central physical workplace, as this may require electronic distribution of the poster via intranet, email, or other digital means.
COMMON MISTAKE: Selecting 'No' for hybrid workers who split time between home and office—the NLRB considers employees who do not regularly visit a physical posting location to require electronic notice.
Describe how you will provide the poster to remote employees (e.g., 'Posted on company intranet HR page,' 'Distributed via annual compliance email,' 'Available in shared Google Drive folder'), ensuring the method is customarily used for personnel notices.
COMMON MISTAKE: Leaving blank or writing 'email' without specifics—the NLRB expects a reliable, systematic method, and vague entries suggest ad-hoc distribution that may not reach all employees.
Confirm the physical poster is currently displayed in the listed locations; this is your attestation of compliance, and a 'No' indicates immediate corrective action is required.
COMMON MISTAKE: Selecting 'Yes' before actually posting, or if the poster is obscured, damaged, or placed in a low-traffic area—this creates a false record that offers no protection during an NLRB audit.
ApronPrep auto-fills 11 of 13 fields from a single compliance interview — no re-typing, no guessing what the government expects.
The NLRB updates the mandatory Employee Rights poster periodically. Posting an outdated version, such as the 2019 edition instead of the current one, is a common violation. This can lead to an unfair labor practice charge if discovered during an investigation. Always download the latest "Your Rights Under the National Labor Relations Act" poster directly from the NLRB.gov website to ensure compliance.
The poster must be placed where all employees can readily see it, such as a main break room, near time clocks, or beside other required labor law posters. Simply placing it in a manager's office or a low-traffic hallway does not meet the conspicuous posting requirement. An employee complaint about not seeing the poster can trigger an NLRB inspection and potential enforcement action.
If a significant portion of your workforce in Warren does not speak English as a primary language, you are required to post the notice in the languages they speak. The NLRB provides official translations in over 20 languages. Failing to do so for a Spanish-speaking workforce, for example, is considered a failure to notify employees of their rights and carries the same penalty as not posting at all.
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| City | Fee Range | Timeline |
|---|---|---|
| Detroit | ||
| Grand Rapids | ||
| Warren |
Determine your obligation to display the Employee Rights Under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) poster, known as the "Notice to Employees." If you are a private-sector employer whose business activity affects interstate commerce, you must post it. This applies to most restaurants. You can use the NLRB’s jurisdictional standards tool on their website to verify. No application or notification to any agency is required for this step.
Obtain the official poster from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). You can download the PDF for free from the NLRB website (Form NLRB-1452) and print it yourself on 11" x 17" paper. Alternatively, you can order a single copy mailed to you for free from the NLRB by calling their office. Do not use outdated versions; the current poster was updated in late 2023. This is the only mandatory cost—$0 in government filing fees.
Physically post the notice where your employees can readily see it. The NLRA requires posting in a conspicuous place where you customarily post other employee notices regarding personnel rules or policies. For a restaurant, this is typically in a break room, kitchen bulletin board, or near the time clock. You must also post the notice on an intranet or internet site if you customarily use such sites to communicate with employees about personnel rules. Failure to post can be considered an unfair labor practice.
This is one of 13 requirements for opening a restaurant in Michigan.
federal
local
state
federal
See all co-required forms and how they connect to your compliance dossier.
See All RequirementsThe timeline for posting the federal 'Employee Rights Under the National Labor Relations Act' notice is immediate. There is no approval process or waiting period from the National Labor Relations Board. You are obligated to display the official poster as soon as you are an employer covered by the Act, often concurrent with other initial registrations like your Application for Employer Identification Number. The timeline 'Varies' in data reflects the continuous obligation, not a processing time.
The official notice poster itself has a government filing fee of $0–$0. The poster can be downloaded for free from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) website. While there is no cost for the poster, failing to display it can result in significant penalties from the NLRB, separate from any local requirements such as a City Business License/Registration. Not legal advice — verify with the NLRB.
No, this is not a document you 'transfer.' The posting requirement is tied to each physical workplace where employees work. If you open a new location, you must display a current, unobstructed copy of the official NLRB poster in that new workplace. The obligation is per establishment, similar to how separate locations often require their own local permits.
You do not 'renew' this poster, but you must ensure the displayed version is the current one issued by the NLRB. The NLRB updates the poster content when the law changes; it is the employer's responsibility to replace old posters with the updated version. You should check the NLRB website annually for updates, a best practice that parallels keeping other federal enrollments like EFTPS Enrollment current.
An NLRB agent or compliance officer may visit your workplace to investigate an unfair labor practice charge or for a routine compliance check. They will verify the poster is displayed conspicuously in a location where employees are likely to see it, such as a break room or near other employment law postings. There is no scheduled 'inspection' for this poster alone; non-compliance is typically discovered during an investigation into other workplace issues.
This guide is generated from ApronPrep's compliance dossier system, which uses 53 parallel AI authority experts to discover requirements, then downloads actual forms and generates field-level intelligence for each one.
For Michigan specifically, we have analyzed compliance dossiers for 3 cities (Detroit, Grand Rapids, Warren), generating Rich FILs (Form Intelligence Layers) with 13 form fields analyzed for this requirement. Fee data is sourced from actual county department fee schedules, not estimates.
Our data is verified against official government sources and updated when regulatory changes are detected. If you find an error, please report it — accuracy is our core commitment.
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