California Sexual Harassment Training Update
In October 2018, California Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 1343 modifying the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) sexual harassment training requirements.
Since that time, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) has provided the following resources:
- Online Resources Page for Employers
- Workplace Harassment Guide
- California Discrimination Protections Poster
- Sexual Harassment Pamphlet
- Sexual Harassment Poster
At the end of 2018, the DFEH released Sexual Harassment and Abusive Conduct Prevention Training Information for Employers answering frequently asked questions in anticipation of employer compliance inquiries, including these two that offer clarification:
Q. By what date must employees be trained?
A. Both managerial and non-managerial employees must receive training by January 1, 2020. After January 1, 2020, employees must be retrained once every two years. That means that all employees statewide must be retrained by January 1, 2022.
Q. What if my employees were trained between January 1 and December 31, 2018?
A. The law requires that employees be trained during calendar year 2019. Employees who were trained in 2018 or before will need to be retrained.
What does this all mean? Essentially, everyone needs to be trained, retrained, and then some.
California lawmakers are clearly, emphatically, yelling on their tiptoes from the top of Mount Whitney about the importance of sexual harassment training and prevention in the workplace.
