California has enacted legislation (Senate Bill 778) that will delay the expansion of the state's requirement to provide sexual harassment training.
Background:
In 2018, California enacted Senate Bill 1343, which requires employers with five or more employees to provide at least two hours of sexual harassment training to all supervisory employees and at least one hour of sexual harassment training to all nonsupervisory employees. The interactive training must address not only the prevention of sexual harassment, but also abusive conduct and harassment based on gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation. As enacted, Senate Bill 1343 required the training to be provided by January 1, 2020, and every two years thereafter.
Senate Bill 778:
Under Senate Bill 778, employers with five or more employees will have until January 1, 2021 to provide the sexual harassment training. Thereafter, employers must provide the training to California employees once every two years. An employer that has provided the required training in 2019 isn't required to provide refresher training for two years.
The law also clarifies that new nonsupervisory employees must be provided training within six months of their date of hire. New supervisory employees must be provided training within six months of taking on the supervisory position.
Compliance Recommendations:
California employers with five or more employees should ensure that they provide supervisory and nonsupervisory training by January 1, 2021 and every two years thereafter.
Note: Since 2005, California has required employers with 50 or more employees to provide at least two hours of sexual harassment training to all supervisory employees within six months of assuming a supervisory position and once every two years thereafter. These employers should continue complying with this requirement and implement the requirements of Senate Bill 778 where applicable.
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