New York State Sexual Harassment Training Requirements

• Training must include a detailed definition of and description of sexual harassment that is in-line with the New York State Department of Labor, including examples of illegal behavior constituting sexual harassment
• Training must be interactive
• Must include information about State and Federal laws concerning workplace sexual harassment as well as remedies available to victims of sexual harassment
• Detailed information on the process for reporting grievances, rights of redress, and all forums for Adjudication such as the EEOC.
• Information on the conduct and responsibilities of managers and supervisors dealing with sexual harassment issues
• A prohibition of retaliation against employees who report sexual harassment or discrimination

During the annual training, the employer must provide employees with a copy of the company’s sexual harassment policy and well as a copy of all materials used in the training. This information must be provided in English AND the employee’s native language if it is Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Polish, Russian, Haitian-Creole, Bengali, or Italian. View New York State’s model policy and training requirements.

New York City has enacted their own set of specific sexual harassment training laws. However, most of them overlap with the state laws in place. One extended coverage laid out in the NYC laws is the requirement to include information about bystander intervention, including how individuals should go about participating in bystander intervention.

Records of the completed training must be kept for each employee for 3 years

The EEOC is the federal governing body that describes and enforces sexual harassment and discrimination laws. Read more at (EEOC Harassment). According to the EEOC sexual harassment and other forms of employment discrimination violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, (ADEA), and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, (ADA).

Proper training and knowledge of sexual harassment could have vastly limited the liability of the employers in these instances. There are a number of steps the EEOC recommends that employers take to reduce their chances of liability for sexual harassment claims.

1. Implementing a strong and well understood sexual harassment policy.
2. Providing a robust sexual harassment training program for training employees and supervisors.
3. Establishing an effective complaint and grievance process, within which the employees do not have to fear retaliation.
4. An employer should act Immediately to investigate any complaint or grievance.
5. The employer should take immediate steps such as disciplinary action to stop harassment.
6. Employees should be encouraged to confront the harasser directly and inform them that the conduct is inappropriate as well as informing management and Human Resources

Sexual Harassment Training Tip: Prevention is the BEST tool.

By ensuring that employees understand and are well trained in workplace sexual harassment policies, employers can greatly reduce their chances of being liable for monetary damages in sexual harassment cases.