On October 3, 2018, we kept our readers informed of a new bill that Governor Jerry Brown signed into law updating California’s sexual harassment training requirements. You can read that blog here.
Since that posting, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) has created a new online resources page that includes a section regarding SB 1343 FAQs.
Please note: DFEH is expected to make its training videos available in late 2019.
For now, the DFEH resource link provides a toolkit which includes a sample sexual harassment and abusive conduct prevention training. The training is intended to be used in conjunction with a qualified trainer.
You will also find the following in the toolkit:
- Sexual harassment prevention brochure – distribution required by CA law.
- Sexual harassment prevention poster – distribution required by CA law.
- Workplace Harassment Prevention Guide – intended to help employers and supervisors understand how to prevent and correct wrongful behavior in the workplace.
- Sexual Harassment and Abusive Conduct Prevention Training Completion Certificate.
Who must comply: Employers with five or more employees—regardless of status. All employees must complete the required training.
When employers must comply: The deadline to comply with the training requirements is January 1, 2020. This means all employees must be trained in 2019.
How is this different than AB 1825? AB 1825 required training for employers with 50 or more employees. In addition, the training was required for supervisors only.
SB 1343 amends sections 12950 and 12950.1 of Government Code—also known as AB 1825. SB 1343 amends the code to apply to employers with five or more employees as well as requiring ALL employees—both supervisory and non-supervisory—to complete the training.
What do employers need to do?
- Post an updated DFEH poster on discrimination in a prominent and accessible location in the workplace.
- Post a poster developed by DFEH regarding transgender rights in a prominent and accessible location in the workplace.
- Provide sexual harassment training by the January 1, 2020 deadline:
- If the training is provided after January 1, 2019, employers are not required to provide training by the 2020 deadline.
- Supervisors: 2 hours within 6 months of position, and every 2 years thereafter.
- Non-supervisors: 1 hour within 6 months of position and every 2 years thereafter.
- If an employee is not hired to work 6 months, training should be provided within 30 days or 100 hours worked, whichever comes first.
- If a temporary employee is hired by a temporary services employer, the temporary services employer should provide training.
- Distribute a DFEH developed information sheet to employees, delivered in a manner that ensures distribution to each employee, such as including the information sheet or information with an employee’s pay.
As noted earlier, DFEH will make video and material available on its website in late 2019. The material and training courses will be available in English, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Korean and any other language that is spoken by a “substantial number of non-English speaking people” as defined in Section 7296.2.
If you have any questions pertaining to the above information or general compliance inquiries, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
