New Sexual Harassment Prevention Training Guidelines For California Businesses In The New Year

Catalyzed by the “Me Too” movement in 2018, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill (SB) 1343 and SB 778 to update the requirement of how many employees a company must have before they provide anti-sexual harassment training. Since 2005, employers with 50 or more employees were required to provide such training. Starting January 1st, 2021, employers with 5 or more employees must now provide sexual harassment prevention training, including to non-supervisors.

For supervisory employees, the sexual-harassment training and education is to be at least two hours total. For non-supervisory employees, the requirement is at least one hour. The training must be renewed and retaken every two years. Additionally, the training can be broken up into parts rather than taken all in one sitting. All employers must have records of when their employees have taken their training.

In the case of temporary or seasonal workers, the employer must provide sexual harassment prevention training 30 days within their hire date. If the employee will work there less than six months, then they shall be provided this training within 100 hours worked.

Providing the training may be more challenging due to Covid-19, as many workers are staying at home or reducing the amount of time spent outside their home. Fortunately, in-person training is not required, and the training can be taken either in a group or solo. Sisu VR has our own training that can be taken individually. As long as the two hours for supervisory and one hour for non-supervisory requirement is met within the requirements.

Contact us if you have questions about how these upcoming changes will affect your company.