The latest provisions for New York employers will require written policy distribution and annual training for all employees, as well as expand protections for contractors, vendors, and consultants.
Source: Franck Camhi
Both New York State and New York City have recently enacted legislation requiring businesses to provide sexual harassment training, and California passed similar legislation late last year, including AB 1825 sexual harassment training law; AB 2053 antibullying training law; and SB 396 gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation harassment training law.
Similar proposals have been enacted or are pending in other states, as well: Arizona, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington.
The New York law, which goes into effect on October 9, 2018, will require employers to distribute written antiharassment policies in the workplace and provide annual antiharassment training for all employees based on guidelines set forth by the New York State Department of Labor and Division of Human Rights.
The recently passed legislation requires:
- An explanation of sexual harassment and specific examples of inappropriate conduct;
- Detailed information concerning federal, state, and local laws and the remedies available to victims of harassment; and
- An explanation of employees’ external rights of redress and the available administrative and judicial forums for bringing complaints.
“The most onerous part of the provisions for employers will be the annual training requirement. It’s unclear how many hours will be required, but employees will have to take time out of the workday to complete the training,” says Glenn Grindlinger, a partner in the Manhattan office of Fox Rothschild. “The burden will be on the employer to maintain records to show that they had their employees complete the required training,” he adds.
BLR® Learning has gone to great lengths to ensure that our content is new, relevant to current issues, and utilizes both realistic scenarios. We can help organizations meet their sexual harassment prevention obligations with the help of our comprehensive training options that can help organizations of any size and demographic, as well as learners of every level.
From the development of custom learning modules and courses to investigating and proposing curriculum road maps, BLR Learning will work to listen, understand, and validate the requirements of our associates and then create programs and courses that are tailored to the specifications of our clients.
Some of our timely, work-saving resources include:
- Workplace Harassment Prevention microlearning training course library
- Sexual Harassment: Draw the Line 30-minute online training course
- Stop Sexual Harassment: VIDEO Training for Supervisors
- Preventing Sexual Harassment: National library
- Preventing Sexual Harassment for Maine Employers
- Preventing Sexual Harassment for California Employers
- On-site training
- Labor law posters, pocket guides, training booklets, webinars, and more
If you’d like to learn more about our custom content creation or are interested in discussing a custom training approach to help meet your organization’s compliance obligations for New York or another state, contact Jeremy Kirsch to discuss your requirements.
BLR Learning is ready to help you better understand your state’s requirements so you can develop a strategic training approach that will not only serve to help your organization meet compliance standards but also effect positive behavioral change in your organizational culture.
Jeremy Kirsch, Director of Enterprise Solutions and Custom Learning
jkirsch@blr.com
Phone: 704-965-2329.
This information has been prepared for general informational purposes only and is not intended as legal advice.