The new and amended rules update DCR’s longstanding poster regulations that require employers, housing providers, real estate brokers, and places of public accommodation to conspicuously display posters created by the Division to inform individuals and covered entities of their rights and obligations under the LAD and NJFLA.
Among other changes, the rules impose specific poster requirements for health care facilities, which are now required to conspicuously display facility-specific “Know Your Rights” posters to ensure that patients, visitors, and staff know that they have the right to be free from discrimination in health care. Such entities must prominently display the applicable poster in places that are easily accessible to all patients or potential patients. This includes, but is not limited to, a location near each entrance through which the public can enter or exit, and all public waiting rooms. These facilities may also choose to display the posters in other locations, including individual treatment rooms or on a digitally accessible platform code (for example, a QR Code) posted in plain view around the facility.
DCR’s requirement that site-specific posters be displayed in health care settings is aimed at addressing the State’s serious “racial, ethnic and national-origin-based disparities in health care and medical treatment.”
The office posters are available for downloading and printing from the DCR website https://www.njoag.gov/about/divisions-and-offices/division-on-civil-rights-home/division-on-civil-rights-resources/required-posters/. There you can also find a number of flowcharts, including employment, housing, places of public accommodation, and medical facilities (as shown here), which may be useful tools to help navigate the poster regulations.
Consistent with the premise that posters are not just for dorm rooms, social media is not just for student socialization. To raise awareness and educate the public, DCR is also launching a “Know Your Civil Rights” social media campaign encouraging employers, businesses owners, and the public to post photos of the required posters when they see them being displayed, using the hashtag #CivilRightsNJ and tagging the Division’s Twitter and Facebook pages.
If you have any questions or want to learn more about these new requirements, please contact us for more information.
Article Submitted by Terri L. Marakos, CPA, CHBC
