CA Law Requires Sexual Harassment Prevention Training

The law imposes an initial and continual training requirement on covered employers. By January 1, 2006, employers must provide two hours of sexual harassment training and education to all supervisory employees. Employers that already provided such training to a supervisory employee in 2003 would be exempt from this initial requirement as to any such supervisory employee so trained. After January 1, 2006, covered employers must provide sexual harassment training to each supervisory employee once every two years, and to each new supervisor within 6 months of their assumption of their position.

While AB 1825 does not define "supervisor," the definition contained in the FEHA will likely apply. A "supervisor" is any individual having the authority to "hire, transfer,suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward or discipline other employees, or the responsibility to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend that action . . . if the exercise of that authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment." (Government Code 12926(r).)

The training must be conducted via "classroom or other effective interactive training "and include the following topics:

- Information and practical guidance regarding the federal and state statutory provisions concerning the prohibition against and the prevention of sexual harassment.

- Information about the correction of sexual harassment and the remedies available to victims of sexual harassment in employment.

- Practical examples aimed at instructing supervisors in the prevention of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation.

The training can only be presented by "trainers or educators with knowledge and expertise" in preventing harassment, discrimination, and retaliation. The most prudent approach is to use trainers with both a solid training and harassment prevention background; for example, a trainer who has also been involved in investigating complaints or resolving harassment issues. This statute provides a minimum - not the ideal - standard for an employer's harassment prevention efforts. For example, while only sexual harassment prevention training is mandated, training which is limited exclusively to sexual harassment will be of little or no value in defense of a race, national origin, color, age, or disability harassment case.

If you would like schedule a telephone consultation about your company's sexual harassment prevention training needs, call Dr. Joni Johnston at: 858-481-8625.