Mandatory Sexual Harassment Training:
There are many employment law requirements and legal regulations for employers to consider as the year comes to an end and 2013 begins. If your business operates in California and has more than 50 employees, sexual harassment training should be a top priority, because it is a legal requirement under California State Law AB 1825.
California’s sexual harassment training law, AB 1825 Sexual Harassment Training California Fair Employment and Housing Commission, sets the standard for California and the rest of the country when it comes to preventing sexual harassment. AB 1825’s first effective year was 2007, and it is the first law of its kind to specify the requirements for effective sexual harassment training.
Regulations under AB 1825:
Frequency of Sexual Harassment Training
California employers must provide two hours of sexual harassment training once every two years. They may use “individual” or “training year” methods to track compliance.
- “Individual Tracking – An employer may track its training requirement for each supervisory employee, measured two years from the date of completion of the last training of the individual supervisor.
- “Training year” Tracking – An employer may designate their own “training year” where all (or some) supervisory employees are trained, and thereafter must again retrain these supervisors by the end of the next “training year” two years later.
Documentation of Sexual Harassment Prevention Training
Any employer must keep documentation of all sexual harassment prevention training provided to employees.
Training at New Businesses
Businesses created after January 1, 2006, must provide sexual harassment training to supervisors within six months of their establishment and thereafter biennially.
Training for New Supervisors
New supervisors must be trained in sexual harassment prevention within six months of assuming their supervisory position and thereafter every two years (measured by the individual or the training year tracking method).
Duplicate Training
A supervisor who has received training in compliance with this section within the prior two years either from a current, a prior, an alternate or a joint employer needs to only be given the employer’s anti-harassment policy within six months of assuming the supervisor’s new supervisory position. From there, the supervisor should be put on a two-year tracking schedule based on their last training.
Duration of Training
The sexual harassment training required by this section doesn’t have to be completed in two consecutive hours. However, the minimum duration of a prevention training segment can be no less than half an hour.
Good News: Prevention Training can be Online
The finalized AB 1825 regulations established that Web-based sexual harassment training courses are fully compliant, which is great news for employers. Web-based training is consistent, convenient and compliant; thus, all around better than in-person trainings.
Don’t forget to prepare your California Organization for AB 1825 in the coming year! While it is a legal requirement, preventing sexual harassment is only possible through proper prevention training.