California employers set to comply with the new sexual harassment training requirements arising out of last year’s Senate Bill 1343 got a recent reprieve with new legislation that provides a partial one-year extension.
Enacted last year, SB 1343 requires an employer that employs five or more employees—including temporary or seasonal workers—to provide at least two hours of sexual harassment training to all supervisory employees and at least one hour of sexual harassment training to all nonsupervisory employees by January 1, 2020, and once every two years after that.
Facing pushback from employers struggling to meet the rapidly approaching deadline, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 778 into law in late August. The measure extends the deadline for nonsupervisory employee training from January 1, 2020, until January 1, 2021.
The bill—which took immediate effect—also clarified that supervisors trained in 2018 don’t need to be trained again until 2020. New nonsupervisory employees must still be provided the required training within six months of hire, and new supervisory employees need it within six months of when they became supervisors.
To read SB 778, click here.
Why it matters: SB 778 provides a much-needed extension of time for employers to comply with the new sexual harassment training requirements, although the clock is still ticking and employers should continue to prepare themselves for the updated deadline.