Photo by Mihai Surdu on Unsplash

This past week, in my keynote presentation, a number of employers were unaware of a new law that took effect on January 1, 2019, which requires virtually all California employers to provide sexual harassment prevention training to all employees.

Specifically, by January 1, 2021, employers with five or more employees must provide one hour of sexual harassment prevention training to nonsupervisory employees and two hours of such training to supervisors.1 In order to comply with the January 1, 2021 deadline, all employees must be trained during the calendar year 2019. Employees who were trained in 2018 or before will need to be retrained.

Training must take place within six months of hire or promotion and every two years thereafter. Under the new law, beginning January 1, 2021, seasonal and temporary employees or employees hired to work less than 6 months, must be trained within 30 calendar days after hire or within 100 hours worked, whichever is earlier.

The training must be for at least 2 hours, interactive, must cover state and federal harassment laws and correction remedies available to victims.