Understanding New Harassment Prevention Laws in California
The Californian law takes sexual harassment in the workplace very seriously. Notably, the state has instituted mandatory sexual harassment training for some employer categories in order to prevent sexually abusive conduct.
SB 396
To begin with, as per SB 396, any organization with at least 50 employees is legally required to give employees in a supervisory capacity at least 2 hours of training on sexual harassment at least once in every two years. These employees must also get this training within six months of assuming their positions.
The law is also clear on what areas of sexual harassment to touch on during this training. In particular, the training and education should include training on any issues linked to gender identity, sexual orientation, and gender expression.
Other than the training mentioned above, employers should also have a poster from the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH). The poster should be about transgender rights in the workplace. This same law also recognizes transgender people and those who are non-conforming genders and who face employment barriers.
SB295
SB 295 also touches on sexual harassment for employees within the state with regard to farm employees. This legislation requires that labor contractors get training on sexual harassment prevention and reporting. Not only that, this education and training needs to be in a language the employee understands.
When applying for a license renewal, farm labor contractors are also required to offer a list of all the materials and learning resources used when the sexual harassment training has been provided. The contractors are also required to provide the number of employees who received the training.
Additionally, this information should be supplied to the relevant authorities at least a month before applying for a license renewal. Otherwise, the farm contractors can get citations from the Commissioner and end up paying a $100 for each of the violations they are responsible for.
The Californian law has been advancing to cover more sexual harassment issues within the state. Other modifications have been made to clarify some existing legislation and expound on some of the protections previously provided under the law.
These laws are meant to make employers work to prevent and even stop sexual harassment. Additionally, the employers are required to work extra hard to make sure that they comply with the laws regarding the training and reporting of sexual harassment in the workplace. Because of these laws, California is in among the leading states with regard to legislation touching on the training, prevention, stoppage of sexual harassment in the workplace.
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