California Sexual Harassment Prevention Training

Do I have to provide my employees with sexual harassment prevention training in California? This is an increasingly common question as new laws and regulations are springing up across the US following an increased awareness about sexual harassment in the workplace.

Since 1964, when the Civil Rights Act was passed, discrimination has been illegal. While the main concern of the act was racial equality, the law also made it illegal to discriminate for other reasons, including sexual discrimination.

A pivotal point in determining precisely what sexual discrimination meant was achieved in 1986 when the Supreme Court ruled that a supervisor who used his authority to coerce an employee to have sex with him had discriminated against her because of her gender.

This case effectively opened a door for the protection of sexual harassment victims. Following this breakthrough, additional federal legislation and judicial rulings officially extended the scope of protection to sexual orientation, transgendered individuals, and gender expressions.

The State of California has been at the forefront of the movement against sexual discrimination socially and legally for decades.

In August 2019, California enacted a law that requires all companies with a minimum of five employees to provide sexual harassment protection training.

In this article, we’ll present a historical overview of California legislation to prevent sexual harassment, take a closer look at what the law mandates, and discuss how employers can attain full compliance with the law by January 1, 2021, and onwards.

The Legislative Journey Toward Protection from Discrimination

Many of the most prominent battles in the struggle against gender discrimination took place in California cities, courtrooms, and the legislature.

California has led the way in its efforts to offer legal protection for the marginalized and minorities in many respects, and the struggle against sexual discrimination is by no means the least of these controversial and difficult battles.

Here are the major legislative steps leading to the momentous date of January 1, 2021:

• 2005, AB 1825 made employer action and supervisor training necessary for companies employing 50 or more workers.
• 2015, AB 2053 enhanced the discrimination prevention requirements, including a mandatory segment on preventing abusive conduct.
• 2018, FEHA (the Fair Employment and Housing Act) clarified regulations, expanded protections, and codified employer responsibilities.
• 2018, SB 396 intentionally included sexual orientation, gender expression, and gender identity as being specifically protected from discrimination.
• 2019, SB 1343 lowered the threshold from 50 employees to 5 employees and mandated that all eligible companies provide sexual harassment prevention testing by January 1, 2020.
• 2020, SB 778 extended the deadline for sexual harassment prevention training to January 1, 2021.

Specifics of California Sexual Harassment Prevention Training in Law

The letter of the law, when it comes to training employees to prevent sexual harassment, is clear and simple in its format.

Any company that has five or more employees must train them to recognize, prevent, and report any form of sexually-based harassment at least every two years. The deadline for this is January 1, 2021.

Those companies who employ 50 or more workers have been observing a similar statute for several years. This law not only applies to permanent, full-time personnel but also those categories of individuals that are not legally regarded as employees. So, if you a part-time worker, a contract laborer, a seasonal, or temporary employee, you too are required to receive harassment prevention training provided by the company that pays you for your work.

Even if one-half of all California’s workers have already successfully taken the training, there will still be millions of people who will need to go through it before the end of 2020 for their employers to comply. This implies a looming bottleneck of workers who will need to take the training.

Below, we’ll return to the ramifications of such a great number of workers trying to get certified for having taken the training at the same time.

The law requires that employers maintain a record of harassment training for each employee. The records must describe the training in detail and must be retained by the employer for two years, that is until it’s time for the employee to go through the training process again.

Sexual Harassment Training Options

With the daunting reality of trying to offer sexual harassment prevention training for up to 5,000,000 people in only a few months, the DFEH (Department of Fair Employment and Housing) has provided three basic methods that an employer can use to comply with the law.

For their part, the administrators of the DFEH have encouraged the use of third-party trainers to help cope with the coming bottleneck of companies and employees in need of training. It’s important to remember as well that, within a span of two years, all workers in California will be required to go through the training again—which means 10,000,000 workers will have to receive sexual harassment prevention training in the next 2.5 years.

Instructor-Led Classroom Training

Employers can choose to use the old-school method of classroom instruction. There are a couple of drawbacks to the traditional format in this case. The classes must be held in a location apart from regular working areas, meaning that a suitable space must be provided and all employees have to gather at the same time. Since trainers will be in short supply, and classes have to be held during normal working hours, finding available, certified trainers may prove difficult.

Webinars

The second method of training is through the use of Webinars, much as most of America’s schoolchildren learned at home on the Internet during the 2020 pandemic. There are some downsides to this method as well. Even though these courses can be completed online, they still must be scheduled, and each learner is required to go at the same pace as the rest of the class.

Online Training

The final method of training is online training (eLearning), in which the individual employee is able to take the class at her or his own pace, with the results being digitally recorded and reported to the employer. This sort of instruction can happen at the time that’s most convenient for the employee and the company. To get a good look at this method, which is by far the most flexible and typically the least expensive, you can check out Unharassed.com.

Summary

While the route to legal enforcement of anti-sexual discrimination laws, from the initial passage of the Civil Rights Act, has taken more than 55 years, now that full enactment of the law is at hand, it almost seems too great a challenge for California employers and the DFEH to handle. Fortunately, there are trusted and recognized online sexual harassment training providers available to help companies of any size find a way to comply with our new sexual harassment prevention training requirements.