Governor Cuomo, on August 12, 2019, signed into law Assembly Bill A8421, which significantly expands New York State sexual harassment and discrimination laws. These changes are in addition to the significant legislation that New York enacted in 2018 that were originally reported by The Van De Water Law Firm. This article details the revised and most timely deadlines and requirements under New York State and New York City sexual harassment training laws.
New York Sexual Harassment Training Deadline of October 9, 2019
By October 9, 2019, employers must provide sexual harassment training to all employees located in New York State. Thereafter and upon an ongoing basis, all employers must provide sexual harassment training to all employees each year. Both court decisions and numerous regulations in New York State have made it clear for years that all employers should provide harassment prevention training. Now it’s the law!
The New York State law:
- Applies to all employers, regardless of their size, who employ anyone in the state of New York.
- Applies to all employees, not just supervisors.
- Requires that the training is provided annually.
- Applies to all contractors who bid on New York State contracts.
The NYC law, entitled the “Stop Sexual Harassment in NYC Act,” applies to all employers with 15 or more employees, and requires annual sexual harassment training for all employees. Mandatory compliance with that law began on April 1, 2019.
As a matter of course, both the New York State and New York City laws detail specific content that must be addressed in the training. While New York State training content requirements are similar to content requirements in other states, New York City’s law goes beyond the training content that previously has been required in other jurisdictions. For example, the training provided to employees in New York City must:
- Address bystander intervention
- Describe the complaint process available through the NYC Commission on Human Rights, the New York State Division of Human Rights, and the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and provide employees with those agencies’ contact information
The two tables below detail the obligations and the differences between the New York State and New York City laws regarding:
- Training Requirements (Table 1)
- Training Content (Table 2)
Table 1
Sexual Harassment Training Obligations in New York State: Read More
Table 2
Harassment Training Content Requirements in New York State and NYC: Read More
Required Distribution in Writing of Anti-Harassment Policy and Information Presented in the Employer’s Training Program
According to the 2019 New York State legislation, employers must now provide employees in New York with written notice at the time of their hire and during annual sexual harassment training. The notice must include (1) the employer’s sexual harassment prevention policy and (2) the information presented in the employer’s sexual harassment prevention training program.
Employers must provide the required information in English and in the language identified by each employee as his or her primary language.
The state will publish a model policy in languages other than English (depending on the prevalence of each language in the state). New York employers are not required to provide their policy in another language if the state has not published a template in that language. This requirement to provide notice at the time of hire and during annual training goes into effect immediately upon enactment on August 12, 2019.
Model Training
New York State has already developed a basic model training document that can be followed by employers to provide their employees with training. The State has also created a video of someone reading through the training slides and sample scenarios which can be used as a reference. Nevertheless, the State specifically cautions that simply showing the training video to an employee will not satisfy the State’s minimum training requirements, as this would not be considered “interactive.” Should an employer chooses to use the State’s video to meet its training requirements, it must also:
- Ask questions of employees as part of the program;
- Accommodate questions asked by employees, with answers provided in a timely manner; or
- Require feedback from employees about the training and the materials presented.
Read More
As always, we at The Van De Water Law Firm are your local resource for all your Company’s sexual harassment questions and provide detailed and fully compliant sexual harassment training that strictly complies with both the New York State and City requirements. Call now for a free evaluation and consultation at (631)923-1314, or email us at [email protected]. You can also visit us on the web
