Federal contractors and subcontractors are required to inform employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the primary law governing relations between unions and employers in the private sector. See 29 CFR Part 471. The notice, prescribed in the Department of Labor's regulations, informs employees of Federal contractors and subcontractors of their rights under the NLRA to organize and bargain collectively with their employers and to engage in other protected concerted activity. Additionally, the notice provides examples of illegal conduct by employers and unions, and it provides contact information to the National Labor Relations Board (www.nlrb.gov), the agency responsible for enforcing the NLRA. Federal contractors and subcontractors are required to post the prescribed employee notice conspicuously in plants and offices where employees covered by the NLRA perform contract-related activity, including all places where notices to employees are customarily posted both physically and electronically.

Federal government contracting departments and agencies must include provisions requiring contractors to post the prescribed notice in every Government contract, except collective bargaining agreements entered into by a federal agency, contracts for purchases under the Simplified Acquisition Threshold, and in those cases where the Secretary exempts a contracting department or agency pursuant to the Executive Order. Government contractors must also include provisions requiring posting of the prescribed notice in all subcontracts.

Enforcement responsibilities for the notice requirements are shared by two Department of Labor agencies. The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) is responsible for investigation of complaints, compliance evaluations, and conciliation, and that agency will refer violations to the Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) for enforcement. The sanctions, penalties, and remedies for noncompliance with the notice requirements include the suspension or cancellation of the contract and the debarring of federal contractors from future federal contracts.

The Department of Labor's regulations implement Executive Order (E.O.) 13496 signed by President Barack Obama on January 30, 2009 (74 FR 6107, February 4, 2009). E.O. 13496 promotes economy and efficiency of federal government procurement by ensuring that workers employed in the private sector and engaged in activity related to the performance of federal government contracts are informed of their rights to form, join, or assist a union and bargain collectively with their employer. Knowledge of such basic statutory rights promotes stable labor-management relations, thus reducing costs to the federal government.

For More Information

Obtaining Copies of the Notice of Employee Rights

Executive Order 13496 Notice of Employee Rights, in Adobe Reader (.pdf) format, can be downloaded from the link below. If you are not able to download the notice, or if you seek a hard copy of the notice, you can send a request to olms-public@dol.gov or call 202-693-0123. Contractors may also reproduce and use exact duplicate copies of the official notice.

English Poster

  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws - 11x17-inch one-page format (PDF)
  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws - 8.5x11-inch two-page format (PDF)

Arabic Poster

  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Arabic Version) - 11x17-inch one-page format (PDF)
  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (French Version) - 8.5x11-inch two-page format (PDF)

Burmese Poster

  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Burmese Version) - 11x17-inch one-page format (PDF)
  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Burmese Version) - 8.5x11-inch two-page format (PDF)

Cantonese Poster

  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Cantonese Version) - 11x17-inch one-page format (PDF)
  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Cantonese Version) - 8.5x11-inch two-page format (PDF)

French Poster

  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (French Version) - 11x17-inch one-page format (PDF)
  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (French Version) - 8.5x11-inch two-page format (PDF)

Haitian Creole Poster

  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Haitian Creole Version) - 11x17-inch one-page format (PDF)
  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Haitian Creole Version) - 8.5x11-inch two-page format (PDF)

Hmong Poster

  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Hmong Version) - 11x17-inch one-page format (PDF)
  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Hmong Version) - 8.5x11-inch two-page format (PDF)

Korean Poster

  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (French Version) - 11x17-inch one-page format (PDF)
  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (French Version) - 8.5x11-inch two-page format (PDF)

Laotian Poster

  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Laotian Version) - 11x17-inch one-page format (PDF)
  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Laotian Version) - 8.5x11-inch two-page format (PDF)

Mandarin Chinese Poster

  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Mandarin Chinese Version) - 11x17-inch one-page format (PDF)
  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Mandarin Chinese Version) - 8.5x11-inch two-page format (PDF)

Somali Poster

  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Somali Version) - 11x17-inch one-page format (PDF)
  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Somali Version) - 8.5x11-inch two-page format (PDF)

Spanish Poster

  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Spanish Version)- 11x17-inch one-page format (PDF)
  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Spanish Version) - 8.5x11-inch two-page format (PDF)

Swahili Poster

  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Swahili Version)- 11x17-inch one-page format (PDF)
  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Swahili Version) - 8.5x11-inch two-page format (PDF)

Vietnamese Poster

  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Vietnamese Version) - 11x17-inch one-page format (PDF)
  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Vietnamese Version) - 8.5x11-inch two-page format (PDF)

Zomi Poster

  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Zomi Version) - 11x17-inch one-page format (PDF)
  • Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws (Zomi Version) - 8.5x11-inch two-page format (PDF)

Contractors requiring a translation not available on the OLMS website should request the needed translation, following the directions here.

To use one of these files as a poster for your place of employment, please follow these instructions:

  1. The size of the poster must be 11x17 inches or larger.
  2. If you have a printer capable of printing to 11x17 inch paper, download the poster in the 11x17-inch one-page format. Be sure to select that paper size when printing.
  3. If you do not have a printer that is capable of 11x17 prints, download the poster in the 8.5x11-inch two-page format. When printing, please ensure that the Page Scaling box reads: Scale to Printer Margins and you have checked the Auto-Rotate and Center box. The poster will print two 8.5 x 11 inch landscape pages that must be taped or pasted together to form the 11x17 inch poster.

Electronic Posting of the Notice of Employee Rights

If you are a contractor or subcontractor that customarily posts notices to employees electronically, you must also post the required notice electronically. You can satisfy the electronic posting requirement by displaying prominently a link to the Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws Poster on any external or internal website that you maintain and customarily use for notices to employees about terms and conditions of employment. Should the employees be provided access to an internal intranet only and no outside internet access, the contractor or subcontractor may download the appropriate version(s) of the poster and post it on the internal intranet site, using the appropriate link language.

English Poster

To link to the English version of the Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws Poster, the text for the link must read, "Important Notice about Employee Rights to Organize and Bargain Collectively with Their Employers'' and it must link to this page: http://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/EO_Posters/EmployeeRightsPoster11x17_2019Final.pdf.

Arabic Poster

To link to the Arabic version of the Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws Poster, use the text found here (PDF format) for the link and it must link to the this page: http://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/EO_Posters/Arabic_EmployeeRightsPoster11x17_2019Final.pdf.

Burmese Poster

To link to the Burmese version of the Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws Poster, the text for the link must read, "Important Notice about Employee Rights to Organize and Bargain Collectively with Their Employers" "အလုပ္ရွင္မ်ားႏွင့္အတူ ေဆြးေႏြးရန္ႏွင့္ စည္းရံုးရန္ ဝန္ထမ္း လုပ္ပိုင္ခြင့္မ်ားအေၾကာင္း အေရးႀကီး အသိေပးခ်က္" and it must link to this page: http://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/EO_Posters/Burmese_EmployeeRightsPoster11x17_2019Final.pdf.

Cantonese Poster

To link to the Arabic version of the Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws Poster, the text for the link must read, "关于员工嘅组织权利同埋集体谈判嘅重要通知" and it must link to the this page: https://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/EO_Posters/Cantonese_EmployeeRightsPoster_11x17.pdf.

French Poster

To link to the French version of the Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws Poster, the text for the link must read, "Avis important reliés aux droits des employés de s'organiser et de négocier collectivement avec leurs employeurs" and it must link to the this page: http://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/EO_Posters/Burmese_EmployeeRightsPoster11x17_2019Final.pdf.

Haitian Creole Poster

To link to the Haitian version of the Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws Poster, the text for the link must read, "Avi enpòtan sou Dwa Anplwaye pou òganize ak negosye kolektivman avèk anplwayè yo" and it must link to this page: http://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/EO_Posters/Haitan_EmployeeRightsPoster11x17.pdf

Hmong Poster

To link to the Hmong version of the Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws Poster, the text for the link must read, “Tsab Ntawv Ceebtoom Tseem Ceeb ncig txog Tus Neeg Ua Haujlwm Txoj Cai kom lawv tuaj yeem dhiav Tus Pab Lis Haujlwm thiab Cog Lus nrog Lawv Cov Tswv Num” and it must link to the this page: http://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/EO_Posters/HM_EmployeeRightsPoster11x17.pdf.

Korean Poster

To link to the Korean version of the Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws Poster, the text for the link must read, "고용주와의 단체 교섭권을 위한 근로자의 권리에 대한 중요 공지사항 " and it must link to this page: http://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/EO_Posters/Korean_EmployeeRightsPoster11x17.pdf.

Laotian Poster

To link to the Laotian version of the Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws Poster, use the text found here (PDF format) for the link and it must link to the this page: http://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/EO_Posters/LA_EmployeeRightsPoster11x17.pdf.

Mandarin Chinese Poster

To link to the Mandarin Chinese version of the Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws Poster, use the text found here (PDF format) for the link and it must link to the this page: http://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/EO_Posters/Chinese_EmployeeRightsPoster11x17_FINAL.pdf.

Somali Poster

To link to the Somali version of the Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws Poster, the text for the link must read, "Wargelin Muhiim ah oo ku saabsan Xuquuqda Shaqaaluhu u leeyihiin inay si Wadajir ah isu Abaabulaan ama ula Gorgortamaan loo Shaqeeyayaashooda" and it must link to the this page: http://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/EO_Posters/Somali_EmployeeRights_Poster11x17.pdf.

Spanish Poster

To link to the Spanish version of the Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws Poster, the text for the link must read, "Aviso importante sobre los derechos de los empleados para organizarse y negociar colectivamente con sus empleadores" and it must link to the this page: http://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/EO_Posters/Spanish_EmployeeRightsPoster11x17_Final.pdf.

Swahili Poster

To link to the Swahili version of the Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws Poster, the text for the link must read, "Taarifa Muhimu kuhusu Haki za Wafanyakazi za Kuandaa na Kujadiliana Pamoja na Waajiri Wao." and it must link to the this page: http://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/EO_Posters/Swahili_EmployeeRightsPoster11x17_2019Final.pdf.

Vietnamese Poster

To link to the Vietnamese version of the Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws Poster, the text for the link must read, "Thông Báo quan trọng về Quyền Lợi của Nhân Viên trong việc Tổ Chức và Thương Lượng Tập Thể với Chủ Hãng Của Họ" and it must link to the this page: http://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/EO_Posters/VI_EmployeeRightsPoster11x17.pdf.

Zomi Poster

To link to the Zomi version of the Notice of Employee Rights Under Federal Labor Laws Poster, the text for the link must read, "Nasemte (employees) te a ding naseppiate (employers) tawh gelna leh kikupkidekna a neihkhop uh ciang a thupi ahi nasemte ngahhuai rights ( employee rights) te theihsahna Lai." and it must link to this page: http://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/EO_Posters/Zomi_EmployeeRightsPoster11x17_FINAL.pdf.

Questions About Executive Order 13496?

If you have questions about this Executive Order 13496 or its implementing regulations, call OLMS at 202-693-0123 or send an email to olms-public@dol.gov.

Last Updated: April 14, 2020