Are you in compliance? California Sexual Harassment Law AB 1825

I was recently speaking at a business networking meeting when a business owner asked me if he had to worry about California’s new Sexual Harassment law, AB1825. This businesswoman runs her own company with 18 full-time employees, 20 part-time employees, 8 temporary workers, and 5 sales subcontractors that are located in multiple states.

Requirements: 50 + employees

At first glance, it appears that you don’t meet the 50+ employee requirement that determines whether you must train your supervisors. However, a closer look at the law reveals that temporary service workers and independent contractors, regardless of where they are located, are included in the total employee count.

Requirements: Training should cover all aspects of harassment, discrimination and retaliation.

Training must address retaliation and: harassment and discrimination based on sex, race/color, religion, age, and national origin. Previous trainings typically did not cover these areas.

Another business owner wanted to know whether or not he could continue training in the same way as the year before.

Requirements: A system in place to track and document employee participation and compliance

The answer is maybe yes, maybe no. Whether the training included all forms of harassment and discrimination AND tracked employee participation throughout the training (not just through sign-in/sign-out sheets) AND assessed their understanding of the material AND You can provide proof, so yes, continue training as in previous years.

One business owner, one on a very tight budget, commented “it’s a good thing I only have to train 5 supervisors, because I can’t afford to train more.”

Requirements: Businesses must provide a harassment-free workplace for everyone

With this in mind, how free of harassment will the workplace be if this owner only trains supervisors? . And if the employee files a claim, will the money saved by training just the supervisors be enough to pay for the lawyers, lost production time, and/or punitive damages? Probably not.

Conclusion:

Regardless of the number of employees, employee location, or prior training, employers must protect their business from harassment and discrimination claims and comply with the law. Make sure your company is protected by training all employees on the prevention of harassment and discrimination.