Do You Know About These Sexual Harassment Training Modifications?

There’s new legislation that affects every business with five or more employees.

On September 30, 2018, California Governor Jerry Brown signed SB 1343, legislation that modifies the California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) sexual harassment training requirements as follows:

By January 1, 2020, California employers with five or more employees (it used to be 50 or more) must provide at least two hours of classroom or other effective interactive training and education regarding sexual harassment to all supervisory employees and at least one hour of classroom or other effective training and education regarding sexual harassment to all nonsupervisory employees in California within six months of hire.

The law provides the following additional provisions:

• Employers may provide training in conjunction with other training provided to employees.
• The training may be completed by employees individually or as part of a group presentation, and may be completed in shorter segments, as long as the applicable hourly total requirement is met.
• An employer who has provided this training and education to an employee after January 1, 2019, is not required to provide training and education by the January 1, 2020 deadline.
• After January 1, 2020, each covered employee must provide sexual harassment training and education to each employee in California once every two years.

For seasonal and temporary employees, or any employee that is hired to work for less than six months, beginning January 1, 2020, employers must provide training within 30 calendar days after the hire date or within 100 hours worked, whichever occurs first. (For temporary employees who are employed by a temporary service employee to perform services for clients, the training must be provided by the temporary services employer, not the client.)

Beginning January 1, 2020, sexual harassment prevention training for migrant and seasonal agricultural workers must be consistent with training for nonsupervisory employees.

Employers may develop their own training module or use the California Department of Fair Housing’s training, which it will develop and post on its web site. The department will also make existing informational posters, fact sheets, as well as the online training courses regarding sexual harassment prevention available online and in alternate languages.

Remember, the law is effective January 1, 2019.

Want to keep on top of the most recent trends and new laws that face business owners? Changing laws can become a big problem if you’re not fully informed about them. After all, you have enough to worry about running your day to day operations — imagine being fined because you were not aware of this recent sexual harassment training law change!

How would your net profits suffer if a lawsuit was brought against you? If you were not following the simple California Rules, you could be held liable. If you weren’t aware of this new law and incurred a sexual harassment claim, you would not be compliant and most likely lose your case.

At Van Beurden Insurance, we do more than just sell insurance. We partner with our clients to provide real solutions. I want to do everything I can to keep your business safe and up-to-date on the most recent legislative changes. These days, California businesses need assistance navigating through the challenges of rules and regulations. I can advise you to make sure you are protected and prepared to deal with any situation. Call or click to begin our conversation today.

 

Content provided by Think HR, a cloud-based workplace of integrated HR resources, available exclusively to Van Beurden Insurance clients.