New York State Provides Guidance and Final Models for New State Sexual Harassment Prevention Policies and Training Requirements

Following a period of public comment that recently ended, New York State has published helpful guidance and models to assist employers in New York State to comply with the new legal requirements in the state concerning sexual harassment prevention policies and trainings.

Employers in New York State must provide annual sexual harassment training to their employees by no later than October 9, 2019, and commencing as of today, their sexual harassment prevention policies must meet or exceed certain minimum standards established by New York State.

To assist employers in meeting this requirement, New York has provided a model sexual harassment prevention policy. An employer that does not adopt New York’s model policy must ensure that any alternative policy that it has in place or adopts meets or exceeds New York’s required minimum standards.

Among other things, employers must have a complaint form and process by which employees may report alleged incidents of sexual harassment, and employees must be made aware of the complaint form and process as part of the sexual harassment prevention policy. Employers can download a model complaint form to share with their employees here.

Employers may also wish to display a Sexual Harassment Prevention Poster in a visible place to direct its employees to the company’s sexual harassment prevention policy. A sample poster and other information may be found here. Employers in New York City are required to display a Sexual Harassment Prevention Poster, which can be viewed and downloaded here.

If you have any questions about the new legal requirements, or for information on scheduling sexual harassment training for your employees, please contact Deena R. Merlen by email at dmerlen@rpjlaw.com or by calling our offices at 212-763-4100 (NY) or 203-653-4422 (CT).

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