California Sexual Harassment Training Law

As of January 1, 2021, all employees, including part-time, temporary, and contract workers, must receive workplace sexual harassment training. This is required due to the new California sexual harassment training law, SB 778.

This applies to businesses employing five or more individuals. The training must be repeated every two years, with records of successfully participating employees maintained for the same period. The intent is that no California worker at a business with five or more workers will go more than two years without current anti-harassment training.

This law, which is an achievement landmark for all American states, wasn’t achieved easily. There were fits and starts along the way, sometimes complicated by federal EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) standards. Eventually, however, California’s leadership in human rights and gender equity resulted in the passing and enactment of SB 778.

This article provides an overview of the steps the State of California took on its journey to this milestone and will breakdown what the law requires and how its requirements can be met.

The Evolution of Landmark Legislation

The “Me Too” movement and the arduous work of the LGBT community for equality are so much in the news these days that it would be easy to imagine the struggle for rights and respect is a brand new proposition. In actuality, the first formal legal steps toward establishing equality in the face of sexual and gender discrimination and harassment came in 1964 with the Civil Rights Act. At the time, this was viewed pretty much strictly in terms of racial equality.

However, in 1986, the Supreme Court ruled that sexual harassment was, in actuality, a form of sexual discrimination, which was outlawed in Title VII section of the Civil Rights Act. The EEOC, which had an average of 10 sexual harassment cases prior to the ruling, reported 624 reports the following year, a number that had risen to more than 4,600 by 1995.

California stepped forward in 2005 with the passage of AB 1825. The law required employers with 50 or more employees to give mandatory sexual harassment training to the business’ supervisors. Perhaps one of the most important results of this law was to generate an awareness that it was not sufficient to deal with the degree of sexual harassment endemic in workplaces throughout California.

In August 2019, California passed SB 778, a comprehensive new bill aimed at confronting the burgeoning reports—and societal recognition—of the issues of sexual harassment, gender bias, and discrimination.

With only a few months to respond to the legal requirements of the new bill, legislation was passed that pushed full compliance with SB 778 back for one full year. The full effect of the law will be in force on January 1, 2021.

What Does SB 778 Require?

It’s tempting to say that SB 778 requires all California workers to complete sexual harassment training. In truth, the law addresses California’s employers rather than its workers.

All California businesses employing five or more workers must provide and document sexual harassment training for all their personnel by January 1, 2021. This applies not just to permanent, full-time employees but also part-time, contract, temporary, and seasonal workers as well.

For those employees, who come to work for a company as new hires after January 1, 2021, there is a six month grace period during which they must acquire harassment training. If they received California sexual harassment training at their prior place of employment, it’s not necessary for them to be recertified until two years have passed since their prior certification.

However, as new hires, these employees must be presented with a written copy of their new employer’s sexual harassment policies and must acknowledge that they have read and understood these policies.

Seasonal and temporary workers must receive training within 30 days of commencing service with a new employer, or within 100 hours of work, whichever comes first.

SB 778 has a well-regimented series of rules for certifying that employees have, in fact, received the training. The required documents must be kept ready for inspection for two years, by which time the employees will need to be recertified.

How Can Employers Comply with the California Sexual Harassment Training Law?

The brief window of opportunity remaining for California businesses that are trying to comply with SB 778 means that simple, effective, quick, and inexpensive training methods are required. Currently, California recognizes three acceptable methods of training employees to recognize, prevent, and report sexual harassment. These are classroom training sessions, webinars, and E-learning computer-based training.

The most traditional of these is the classroom training session, though this method has some drawbacks when it comes to teaching the necessary curriculum required by SB 778. The sessions must be conducted in a location that employees do not use for their regular work activity. The requirements for a certified trainer are stringent and the certification process is arduous.

Webinars are an interesting alternative. They combine a faux classroom setting with limited student interaction with digital technology. This format also requires a set date, time, and location for the sessions, along with a complex certification process.

To be sure, the simplest, quickest, most efficient, and personal form of training is online sexual harassment training. Students are able to learn the materials over the Internet at their individual pace. It stands to reason that training companies such as Unharassed.com are an answer, not just the current bottleneck of employees to be trained, but in the long run as 5,000,000 Californians every year will need to be certified in sexual harassment training.

Summary

Leading the way forward to create a society where sexual discrimination and harassment have been eliminated, the California legislature brought forth SB 778 in 2019. The full impact of the law will come to pass on January 1, 2021, by which time all employed Californians are to have received the training necessary to recognize, prevent, and report sexual harassment.

Like so many other progressive achievements, this milestone will initially be difficult to accommodate. In time, however, it will demonstrate its great worth in helping to create a society of mutuality, equality, and respect.