Legal Alert: Important Deadlines Loom for Employers in New York and California

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Legal Alert to All Employers with Employees in California or New York State: 

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If you have not already provided the legally required sexual harassment prevention training for your employees, you are running out of time to provide the training before the statutory deadlines.  Covered employers that fail to provide required training to their employees by the deadline will be in violation of the law.

Regardless of whether you work with Reavis Page Jump or a different provider to secure the necessary trainings for your employees, if you are an employer covered by the laws in California or New York regarding employee training, it is essential that you provide the required training by the deadline to avoid violating the law.  You also must comply with additional requirements as applicable, such as mandatory distribution of sexual harassment prevention policies and notices that meet applicable statutory requirements.

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What are the deadlines by which to provide the training?

New York State:  October 9, 2019
California:  January 1, 2021*

What companies must provide training to their employees, and who must receive the training? 

New York:

Under New York State law, employers must provide the required anti-harassment training by October 9, 2019 to all their employees (all, as in ALL – regardless of immigration status and whether supervisory or non-supervisory, full-time, part-time, seasonal or temporary) who work at least a portion of their time in New York state.

There is an additional New York City law that applies to employers that had a combined total of 15 or more employees, interns, or independent contractors working in New York City at any point in 2018, regardless of the number of days or hours worked.  These employers must comply with the New York State law discussed above but must also comply with the New York City law, which has additional substantive requirements in regard to the training and written information that must be made available to one’s employees in New York City.

California:

Under California law, which was *updated as of August 30, 2019, all employers with five or more employees must provide the state-mandated training to their employees in state by January 1, 2021, and like New York’s law, this includes all employees, regardless of whether supervisory or non-supervisory, full-time, part-time, seasonal or temporary.  The training must be provided by a “qualified” trainer, as defined under the California law, and must meet various substantive requirements set forth in the California law.

The law previously required training to be completed by January 1, 2020, and as such the new extension provides an additional year to fulfill the requirements.  However, beginning on the original January 1, 2020, date, seasonal hires, temporary workers and other employees who are hired to work for fewer than six months must be provided training within 30 days of their hiring or within the first 100 hours worked, whichever occurs first.  Additionally, migrant and seasonal agricultural workers are to be provided sexual harassment prevention training at the time of hire and at least once every two years. Finally, while the deadline was extended for new training requirements for smaller employers, the previous requirements applying to employers of 50 or more employees still hold, and those employers must continue to comply with their existing and ongoing obligations for training employees in supervisory roles.

Trainings by Reavis Page Jump LLP

RPJ has long provided live discrimination, sensitivity and anti-harassment trainings to our clients.

In light of new legal requirements in the wake of #MeToo, we have updated our array of in-person and online training programs to satisfy the statutory requirements of New York State, New York City, California and Connecticut. While Massachusetts and New Jersey do not require training by law, our online courses include state-specific supplements available to employers in these states as well.  In addition, a special “attorney version” of the online training course has just been released to afford attorneys the opportunity to earn CLE credits while satisfying New York and/or California training requirements, as discussed here.  RPJ also assists companies and organizations in complying with their new legal obligations in regard to written policies and postings that must be made available to their employees.

RPJ’s engaging, interactive in-person and online programs are led by attorneys and human resources professionals of our firm, drawing on our unique perspective from decades of deep experience in the legal trenches of employment law, discrimination prevention and dispute resolution.

To learn more about the in-person and online training programs available for your company or organization, please fill out this form at the bottom of our Training Programs page.  Alternatively, contact RPJ Partner Deena R. Merlen directly by email at dmerlen@rpjlaw.com or by calling our offices at 212-763-4160 (NY) or 203-653-4422 (CT).

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