Who is a covered employer?
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AB 1825 covers all employers who operate in California and regularly employ 50 or more employees. Independent contractors and temporary employees are counted as employees for coverage purposes.
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The regulations clarified that this 50 employee threshold includes employees not physically located in California. Therefore, if an employer has 50 employees spread across multiple states, all supervisors who work in California must be trained.
Who must receive training and how often?
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Employees hired or promoted to supervisory positions must be trained within 6 months of hire or promotion to the position.
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All supervisory employees located in California must receive the mandated training once every 2 years.
What is the timing for retraining supervisor?
Employers can use either "individual tracking" or "training year" tracking or a combination of both.
"Individual" Tracking: An employer may track its training requirement for each supervisory employee, measured two years from the date of completion of the last training of the individual supervisor. -
"Training year" Tracking: An employer may designate a "training year" in which it trains some or all of its supervisory employees and thereafter must again retrain these supervisors by the end of the next "training year," two years later. Thus, supervisors trained in training year 2006 shall be retrained in 2008.
Who is considered a supervisor?
The regulations adopted the FEHA's definition of supervisor: any individual with the authority to "hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge, assign, reward, or discipline other employees, or the responsibility to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend that action, if…the exercise of that authority…requires the use of independent judgment." (Cal. Code Section 12926 (r)). Attending harassment training does not create an inference that an employee is a supervisor or that a contractor is an employee or a supervisor.
Under the proposed regulations, does in-person or webinar training need to be conducted by an attorney?
No. A qualified "trainer" must conduct the training. A trainer shall be one or more of the following:
- "Attorneys" admitted for two or more years to the bar of any state in the United States and whose practice includes employment law under the Fair Employment and Housing Act and/or Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, or
- "Human resource professionals" or "harassment prevention consultants" working as employees or independent contractors with a minimum of two or more years of practical experience in one or more of the following:
- designing or conducting discrimination, retaliation and sexual harassment prevention training;
- responding to sexual harassment complaints or other discrimination complaints;
- conducting investigations of sexual harassment complaints; or
- advising employers or employees regarding discrimination, retaliation and sexual harassment prevention, or
- "Professors or instructors" in law schools, colleges or universities who have a post-graduate degree or California teaching credential and either 20 instruction hours or two or more years of experience in a law school, college or university teaching about employment law under the Fair Employment and Housing Act and/or Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Do Alexander Hamilton Institute's trainers meet the requirement to conduct training under the regulations?
- Yes. All of AHI's trainers are qualified as defined by the regulations.
What are the remedies for noncompliance?
If one of your employees files a claim of sexual harassment, you can expect a letter from the DFEH requesting proof that you have completed the training and are in compliance with AB 1825. The letter will request that you provide the number of supervisors you employ, the dates training was provided, the name and qualifications of the trainer, and copies of the training material provided. Worse yet, a plaintiff's lawyer will argue that failure to train in accordance with the law demonstrates an organization's "reckless disregard" for the law, and thereby establishes a potential basis for punitive damages liability. If the FEHA should come knocking on my door, what does AHI provide as proof that my supervisors have completed the training?
What are the interactive requirements for all forms of sexual harassment training as clarified in the regulations?
All forms of sexual harassment training must include: "questions that assess learning", "skill-building activities that asses the supervisor's application and understanding of content learned", and "numerous hypothetical scenarios about harassment, each with one or more discussion questions so that supervisors remain engaged in the training".
How does AHI's course meet the interactive requirements of AB 1825?
The interactive components of AHI's course not only meet California' s legal requirements, they also increase information retention. Participants are kept awake and "on their toes" by frequent activities like question and answer sessions and real-life case study exercises. To ensure that your employees not only understand, but also retain the compliance information in the training, they will receive a brief final quiz.
Another advantage of using live training is that participants get their questions answered immediately. This ensures that participants can ask follow-up questions right away if they are still unsure of how to handle a specific workplace situation.
For more information on AHI's training programs, please contact Fran Goggin at (800) 879-2441 ext. 119 or send an e-mail to: fgoggin@ahipubs.com. |
