The state of California requires 2 hours of sexual harassment training every two years for supervisors in companies with 50 or more employees. Additionally, any newly hired supervisor must be given two hours of sexual harassment training within 6 months of the date they were hired. The same rules apply to newly promoted supervisors.
The 50 employee total is not exclusive to California. For instance, if a company has 49 employees working in states other than California and 1 supervisory employee in California, that company would be required to train that one employee under the law. The 50 employee total is calculated using all full-time, part-time, temporary workers, and contractors who have worked over 20 consecutive weeks in the current or previous calendar year.
While the EEOC defines a supervisor as any employee who makes tangible employment decisions, the state of California’s definition is considerably more broad.
Government Code sec. 12926(s) states: “Supervisor” means any individual having the authority, in the interest of the employer, to hire, transfer, suspend, layoff, 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.
Most legal experts agree that because of this vague definition, it’s better to err on the side of caution and train all employees for whom there is a question rather than testing the court’s interpretation of the law.
The 2-hour course must include training on the following:
Classroom training, webinars, and e-learning are all acceptable training methods; however, the training must include questions to assess learning retention, skill-building exercises, hypothetical or real-life examples of harassment scenarios, and discussion questions of those scenarios.
Attorneys, HR professionals, and college professors are all eligible to be trainers. Attorneys must practice employment law and in particular must have experience with Title VII or FEHA law. College professors must have 2 years’ experience teaching FEHA or Title VII law. HR professionals must have two years of experience creating harassment courses, advising employees on harassment, or conducting harassment investigations. Every course must offer an expert to answer questions after the course is completed, and answers must be provided within 2 business days.