SEXUAL HARASSMENT PREVENTION TRAINING

Harassment prevention continues to be an important topic. California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Maine, New York City, and New York State, all currently have harassment prevention initiatives and we anticipate that other states and cities will implement requirements. 

California

California continues to be at the forefront of workplace harassment legislation. California has progressively led state-mandated sexual harassment training requirements for private-sector employers. Although a few states have similar sexual harassment training requirements for private-sector employers, the majority of states require such training only for employees in the government sector.

Senate Bill 1343 requires employers with five or more workers to provide sexual harassment training to all employees by January 1, 2021, and then at every two years. 

For employers with five or more employees, the law requires that:

• Supervisory employees must complete at least two hours of classroom or online interactive training and education on sexual harassment prevention.
• New supervisors must be trained within six months of taking a supervisory position.
• Nonsupervisory employees must complete at least one hour of classroom or online training and education and new nonsupervisory employees must be trained within six months.
• Temporary and seasonal employees – or any employee hired to work less than 6 months – must also be trained within 30 calendar days after their hire date or within 100 hours worked, whichever comes first.
• Employees and supervisors who were trained in 2019 must be retrained in two years.
• Employers must keep records of the training for a minimum of two years.

Connecticut

Connecticut’s new law, the Time’s Up Act, went into effect on October 1, 2019. It applies to all employers, regardless of the size of their workforce. Under the new law:

• All Connecticut employers must train supervisors on sexual harassment prevention by October 1, 2020, or within six months of an employee assuming a supervisory role.
• Organizations with three or more employees must provide two hours of training to all employees, not just supervisors. The previous requirement only applied to employers with 50 or more employees and mandated that only supervisors be trained.
• Existing employees must take the training by October 1, 2020, and then, at least every 10 years.  

Delaware

Employers with 50 or more employees are required to provide interactive training and education to all employees by December 31, 2019. In addition, for covered employers, the law requires that:

• All new employees and supervisors must be trained within one year of hire, and then every two years.
• Supervisors must receive additional training on their responsibilities to prevent and correct sexual harassment and retaliation, and also be retrained every two years.
• All employers, regardless of the size of their workforce, must distribute the Department of Labor’s Sexual Harassment Notice to each new employee.  

Illinois

The Workplace Transparency Act goes into effect on January 1, 2020. Under the new law:

• All Illinois employers, regardless of size, must provide annual sexual harassment prevention training to all employees.
• Restaurants and bars must have sexual harassment prevention training and policies tailored to the restaurant and bar industry.
• Employers are not required to train independent contractors but are strongly advised to train independent contractors who will work on-site at the employer’s workplace or interact with the employer’s staff.  
• Any employee who will perform work or regularly interact with the employer’s employees in Illinois should be trained, even if based in another state.  

New York State

Starting October 2019, all New York state employers must provide annual sexual harassment training to all employees and supervisors − including part-time, seasonal and temporary workers. Another significant change is that employees are no longer required to prove that alleged sexual harassment was “severe or pervasive” in order to hold perpetrators and employers accountable. New York requires that:

• New employees must be trained as soon as possible after their start date.
• Training is interactive, requiring some level of employee participation and may be web-based.
• Employers should provide training in the language spoken by their employees.
• Employers are encouraged to keep a copy of training records and a signed acknowledgment that employees have read the organization’s sexual harassment prevention policy.

New York City

NY state’s anti-harassment laws apply to all New York employers, however, New York City organizations with 15 or more employees have additional requirements under the Stop Sexual Harassment in NYC Act. For employers with 15 or more employees, NYC requires that:

• Training covers bystander intervention and retaliation.
• Training includes information on the complaint process available through the NYC Commission on Human Rights, the New York State Division of Human Rights and the EEOC.  
• Training records be kept for a minimum of three years.

Maine

Maine State requires employers with 15 or more employees to provide anti-harassment training to all employees within one year of hire. In addition, for covered employees, the law requires that:

• Supervisory and managerial employees must receive additional training on their specific responsibilities to address sexual harassment complaints within one year of their hire or promotion.
• Employers must keep training records for at least three years and must make the records available for inspection upon request.