Sexual Harassment FAQ
Employers with 5 or more employees are required to provide their all employees with sexual harassment prevention training. The training for supervisors must be at least two hours of classroom or other effective interactive training; training for non-supervisors must be one hour in length.
Farm Employers Labor Service (FELS) is available to perform this required training in English and Spanish. Contact us at (800) 753-9073 for rates and more information.
Each session will cover these topics:
- Information and practical guidance on the federal and state laws prohibiting sexual and general harassment, laws requiring prevention against harassment, and laws requiring appropriate employer response to harassment;
- Remedies available to victims of harassment and sexual harassment; and
- Practical examples aimed at instructing supervisors in the prevention of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation.
Send for more information to:
Farm Employers Labor Service 2300 River Plaza Drive Sacramento, CA 95833
Or call (800) 753-9073.
Sexual Harassment FAQ
Here are some questions and answers on this topic.
Coverage: Q: Do part-time or seasonal employees count toward the 5 employee coverage threshold? A: Yes.
A regulation promulgated by the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission (FEHC) defines "regularly employing" in the context of discrimination in employment as "employing five or more individuals for each working day in any twenty consecutive calendar weeks in the current calendar year or preceding calendar year." The California Supreme Court ruled in a 1992 case, Robinson v. Fair Employment and Housing Commission, that all persons whose names appear on an employer’s payroll are to be counted as employees for each week that their names appear there, even if they do not work every day of the week.
Multi-Employers: Q: Is an employer that by itself does meet the coverage threshold nonetheless covered because it is related to one or more other employers that individually or collectively do meet that threshold?
A: It depends on the nature of the relationship.
Where it can, the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing follows federal case law in construing coverage under the state law, the Fair Employment and Housing Act. In Morgan v. Safeway Stores, Inc., the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declared that it treats two entities as one if they have: interrelated operations; common management; centralized control of labor relations; and common ownership or financial control.
Despite the coverage threshold, many practitioners and business groups recommend that employers perform anti-harassment training no matter how many employees they may have. Whether a company is small or large, one of the best defenses to a harassment charge is that is has a good training program for supervisors. And even before this new requirement was enacted, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s guidelines included supervisor training.
Qualifications of the Trainer: Q: Who can perform the supervisor training? Does the person have to have a certification?
A: The law says the training "shall be presented by trainers or educators with knowledge and expertise in the prevention of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation." The law does not require the trainer to have a specific certification or profession.
On the other hand, the trainer can’t just read some sexual harassment material to become qualified to perform the training.
When choosing a trainer, employers should remember that a trainer's qualifications will be important if the adequacy of the training is later scrutinized. Further, some courts have determined that it is important for trainers to understand the complex body of harassment and discrimination laws and keep up-to-date with new cases that may change the interpretations of these laws. Thus, it is crucial for trainers to be able to give practical and legally accurate responses to questions raised by the participants.
The cliché "the proof is in the pudding" is apt here: If, after being trained, supervisors can discuss and put into practice the key elements of sexual-harassment prevention, then the training in all likelihood will be deemed to have met the standards.
What Should Employers Do? Here are some things to do to prepare for the new training requirement:
- Determine whether your company is covered by counting employees and keep an up-to-date log
- Develop a tickler system to alert you to when training is due
- Research training options, including outside trainers and in-house resources
- Develop a record system to track training
- Update employment policies and procedures to include mandatory training requirements for supervisors
- Review the new requirements with managers and other key employees
- Budget for required training
- Training should include harassment based on all protected characteristics (e.g., race, gender identity, national origin, religion), not just harassment based on sex
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