U.S. Anti-Sexual Harassment Laws

Anti-Sexual Harassment and Ethics & Compliance

In the last few years, the persistent challenge of sexual harassment has dominated news cycles. In response, multiple state legislatures in the U.S. are considering and passing new laws that change the way employers address workplace and sexual harassment.

Trends indicate many states are or will mandate strict new anti-sexual harassment policies and training requirements. New York State, New York City and California initiated new requirements in 2018, Connecticut passed similar provisions in 2019, and several other states are legislating similar requirements.

NAVEX Global recommends customers discuss the new legal requirements within these laws with their legal counsel to ensure their organizations are able to comply with the regulations and align to evolving behavioral expectations. We further recommend that organizations use these changes in regulatory requirements as an opportunity to not simply abide by the letter of the law, but to further define their code of conduct, anti-harassment policies and enhance their organizational culture.

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What you need

Policies that Align to Regulations

Multiple state and federal laws require organizational policies on harassment. The efficient creation, management and distribution of these policies is central to compliance.

Whistleblower Hotlines and Incident Management

Your employees need a secure, private and anonymous channel through which they can confidently report sexual harassment incidents and have them competently addressed and mitigated.

Interactive Ethics Training that Aligns to Laws and Improves Culture

Effective training is shown to drive understanding, changes in behavior and promote cultures of integrity and respect. Our Workplace Harassment course is aligned to recent legislation in California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, New York, and other states.

Include your Partners and Vendors in Your Program

Your third-parties are often deeply integrated into your organization, and therefore should be included in your ethics and compliance programs, anti-harassment policies and training.

NAVEX Global's Approach

PolicyTech® Policy & Procedure Management

PolicyTech enables customers to create, distribute and capture employee attestation to key ethics and compliance policies

EthicsPoint® Incident Management

EthicsPoint, the premier incident management and hotline, allows your employees a secure and anonymous channel through which they can report their ethics concerns – including harassment reporting. EthicsPoint allows you to better understand, manage and reduce your ethics and compliance risks

NAVEXEngage® Online Compliance Training

NAVEX Global’s online training solution is market-leading and designed to keep your organization in compliance with shifting state law obligations (CA, NY, DE, ME, CT, IL), build critical legal defenses, improve your culture and change employee behaviors

Code of Conduct

NAVEX Global’s code of conduct services is designed to help organizations build, distribute and educate on the ethics topics that matter most to your organization. Many of the world’s best codes of conduct are developed with NAVEX Global

RiskRate® Third-Party Risk Management

Your compliance program doesn’t end at your door. Your third-parties do business in your name, and are similarly required to align to your anti-sexual harassment policies and training. Deliver anti-harassment policies and training to your third parties through NAVEX Global's RiskRate third-party risk management and due diligence solution

NAVEX Global is not a law firm and does not offer legal advice. The below information on US legislation is for reference only and should not be understood as legal advice. Please consult your legal advisor or general counsel for further information on these laws and on whether and how they may or may not impact your organization.

U.S. Federal Government

Workplace harassment is a form of discrimination and often the vehicle through which a person attempts to or successfully exerts control over another through sexual harassment, bullying, religious or ethnic stereotyping, gender bias or political speech. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that make it illegal to discriminate against job applicants or employees due to a person’s race, color, religion, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability or genetic information. Generally speaking, most employers in the U.S. with at least 15 employees are covered by most discrimination laws, which apply to all types of work situations, including hiring, firing, promotions, harassment, training, wages and benefits.

California

AB 1825: Includes a definition of sexual harassment and detailed training requirements. Requires organizations with 50 or more employees (including temporary and contractual employees) to provide at least two hours of harassment training every two years to all employees with supervisory responsibilities

AB 2053: Extends on AB 1825 to require training for managers on abusive conduct.

Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA): Protects employees from discrimination or harassment based on their race, religion, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, age, sexual orientation and military/veteran status.

FEHA requires organizations with five or more employees to create policies detailing avenues for sharing complaints, complaint management processes, reporting requirements and anti-retaliation standards.

SB 396: Mandates that employers provide harassment training that addresses gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation.

SB1343: Requires employers to provide all employees with one hour and all supervisors with two hours of anti-harassment training every two years.

Connecticut

In 2019 the Connecticut enacted Public Acts 19-16 and 19-93, which constitute the Time’s Up Act. The Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO) manages the administration of these Acts, which establish new rules and requirements regarding sexual harassment training and education. These requirements, which include two hours of anti-harassment training for all supervisors as well as for employees with three or more employees in Connecticut. Training must be completed by October 1, 2020.

Delaware

The Delaware Discrimination in Employment Act (DDEA) requires all organizations with at 50 or more employees provide interactive training and education to employees regarding the prevention of sexual harassment.

Illinois

In 2019, Illinois has passed SB75, which includes the Workplace Transparency Act (WTA), which requires anti-harassment training for all employees in Illinois, including any employees with 20 or more calendar weeks in a year in Illinois.

Maine

The Maine statute mandating training applies to all employers with 15 or more employees. Supervisors and managers must receive specialized training that addresses their specific roles and responsibilities.

New York State

The 2018 regulation establishes that all employees and managers must receive annual harassment training, completed by October 9, 2019.

NAVEX Global enables organizations to address these and other ethics and compliance requirements through our market-leading hotline and incident management solution, policy management solution, third-party risk management and eLearning training solution.

Our anti-harassment training course, Workplace Harassment, has been updated at a 24 month cadence for more than 15 years. The current editions of the course, WPH7 and WPH8, align to the requirements of changing state laws and other anti-harassment regulations.

Please consult with your counsel to define which state and local laws apply to your organization, and what your obligations are to align to them. The law firm of Baker McKenzie partners with NAVEX Global, and regularly advises businesses on issues of sexual harassment, ethics and compliance.