Decided last month, the Doubleverify case discusses the required nexus between ads and job duties when one ad covers multiple positions.

In our context, let’s say this covers a building services company that wants to hire janitors and landscapers or a shipping facility that wants to hire multiple positions (order picker, order packer, material handler, etc.). The basic premise is that an employer can save (a bit) on ad costs particularly in newspapers when advertising the roles together.

This case strikes me as kind of an avoidable situation in the first place by the employer/attorney because it did not specifically list some of the exact job titles in the ads. This is not a great idea. The ultimate allegation by the DOL was that, because the titles weren’t listed, there was not enough specificity in the ads to reasonably apprise potentially-interested US workers as to the vacancies.

Ultimately, the employer prevailed. The regulations don’t require the exact job title be listed (“Provide a description of the vacancy specific enough to apprise the U.S. workers of the job opportunity for which certification is sought”) and there’s further a DOL FAQ, which although nonbonding, that appears to confirm this. So fortunately, the employer won out here. But of course, as mentioned above, this whole things seems kind of avoidable because why would you not list the title of the position fully? Anyway, the right result was reached… just a lot further along down the road.

Originally published here: https://www.permlabor.com/blog/ads-for-multiple-positions