House Commerce and Labor Committee advances bill allowing Ohio employers to post labor notices online

The House Commerce and Labor Committee advanced Senate Bill 33 on a party-line procedural vote after sponsor testimony and questions from members.

Senator Wilson, a sponsor of the measure, told the committee Senate Bill 33 “is a simple, straightforward bill” that would permit — but not require — Ohio employers to make statutorily required labor-law notices available via the Internet rather than only by posting them at a physical workplace.

The bill does not change the required content of the notices, Wilson said. He noted that the director of the Ohio Department of Commerce is already required under current law to publish those notices on the department’s website and to update them annually; SB 33 would make online posting an optional, permissible method of providing employees access to the same notices.

Committee members pressed the sponsor on several practical issues, including how the change would affect remote and hybrid workers and how employers would demonstrate employees had actual access to…