SB 778: CA Fair Employment and Housing Act / Harassment-Prevention Training Compliance

SB 778: The California Fair Employment and Housing Act makes specified employment practices unlawful, including the harassment of an employee directly by the employer or indirectly by agents of the employer with the employer’s knowledge. Under existing law, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing administers these provisions. Existing law, by January 1, 2020, requires an employer with 5 or more employees to provide at least 2 hours of classroom or other effective interactive training and education regarding sexual harassment to all supervisory employees and at least 1 hour of classroom or other effective interactive training and education regarding sexual harassment to all nonsupervisory employees in California within 6 months of their assumption of a position. Existing law also specifies that an employer who has provided this training to an employee after January 1, 2019, is not required to provide sexual harassment training and education by the January 1, 2020, deadline.

This bill would instead require an employer with 5 or more employees to provide the above-described training and education by January 1, 2021, and thereafter once every 2 years. The bill would require new nonsupervisory employees to be provided the training within 6 months of hire and new supervisory employees to be provided the training within 6 months of the assumption of a supervisory position. The bill would also specify that an employer who has provided this training and education in 2019 is not required to provide it again until 2 years thereafter. The bill would make other related changes to those provisions requiring sexual harassment training.

This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.