California employers may need to revisit their sexual-harassment-prevention training to ensure compliance with the newly enacted Senate Bill 1343 (SB 1343). Prior to SB 1343, only businesses employing 50 or more workers were required to provide sexual-harassment-prevention training to supervisory employees.
Under the new law, any employer with five (5) or more employees is required to provide sexual-harassment-prevention training to all employees by January 1, 2021, and then once every two years. Supervisory employees are required to undergo two (2) hours of sexual harassment training, while all non-supervisory employees are required one (1) hour of training, this includes part-time and temporary employees. Further, any employee that is hired to work for less than six (6) months shall be trained within 30 calendar days of hire or within 100 hours works, whichever occurs first.
To assist employers in satisfying this requirement, SB 1343 has tasked the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) with developing informational materials and online training courses. The DFEH expects these materials to be available by late 2019 (DFEH SB 1343 FAQ, link below). In the interim, the DFEH is offering a sexual harassment and abusive conduct prevention toolkit (link below) that employers may use in conjunction with an eligible trainer.