Anti-Bullying Mandatory Training in California

In addition to mandatory harassment prevention training, California employers with 50 or more employees are now required to include an “abusive conduct” prevention section within their training. Abusive conduct is defined as “conduct of an employer or employee in the workplace, with malice, that a reasonable person would find hostile, offensive and unrelated to an employer’s legitimate business interest.” Repeated acts are the most common case of “abusive conduct” rather than single acts. Conducts such as, repeated verbal or physical conduct that one can find threatening, humiliating or intimidating.

California employers must provide a minimum of two hours of high quality, interactive harassment training. Harassment training must be repeated every two years, and newly hired or promoted supervisors must be trained within six months of their new position. It is the employer’s responsibility to provide training to all employees to ensure they understand their rights and responsibilities concerning workplace harassment.

Harassment is not just sexual harassment. One in 10 employees surveyed in 22 countries around the world indicate that they’ve been intentionally physically assaulted out of anger on the job by a co-worker or manager during a workday (Navex Global). Sexual harassment is small in comparison to workplace harassment and discrimination. It is an employer’s responsibility to make sure his or her policy emphasizes no tolerance for harassment or discrimination. Workplace discrimination and harassment not only affect employee productivity, but it can divert away from the organization’s real business. Improper conduct can also lead to liability and damages for the organization and the employees.

While the new law regarding the addition of “abusive conduct” to a businesses’ harassment prevention training does not make workplace bullying illegal, it makes employers take the necessary steps to prevent bullying and other verbal or physical acts of harassment.

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