It’s pretty big news that harassment training is now required of all churches. Over the last few years, the #MeToo movement has made a huge impact on individuals and workplaces.
This highly-publicized movement has also raised awareness among lawmakers, who have responded by creating and passing legislation that aims to make workplaces harassment-free.
California Senate Bill 1343, changes the requirements around sexual harassment prevention training,
Starting on January 1, 2019, all employers with five or more employees must provide supervisors two hours of training on sexual harassment prevention. Non-supervisors must complete one hour of training. This training must occur within six months of hire or promotion. Further training must be provided every two years after the initial training.
In addition, all employees must be trained before January 1, 2020. “the Department of Fair Employment and Housing determined that this means training must be done during the 2019 calendar year. This includes supervisors trained in 2018 under the prior law — yes, they will need to retrain in 2019 too.”
By January 1, 2020, employers with at least five employees must provide:
(1) at least two hours of sexual harassment prevention training to all supervisory employees; and …
(2) at least one hour of sexual harassment prevention training to all non-supervisory employees in California within six months of their assumption of either a supervisory or non-supervisory position. The training must be provided once every two years.Employers must provide sexual harassment prevention training to temporary or seasonal employees within 30 calendar days after the hire date or within 100 hours worked if the employee will work for less than six months. In the case of a temporary employee employed by a temporary services employer (as defined by the California Labor Code) to perform services for clients, the training must be provided by the temporary services employer, not the client.The anti-sexual harassment training may be conducted with other employees, as a group, or individually, and broken up into shorter time segments, as long as the two-hour requirement for supervisory employees and one-hour requirement for non-supervisory employees is reached.Employers who provide the required trainings after January 1, 2019, are not required to comply with the January 1, 2020, deadline.The DFEH must develop, obtain, and make available on its website the one-hour and two-hour anti-sexual harassment training courses for supervisory and non-supervisory employees. Employers may develop their own training platforms, as long as they comply with the law’s requirements.The DFEH must make existing informational posters and fact sheets regarding sexual harassment prevention available to employers and to members of the public in English and other languages (as listed in the law) on the department’s internet website.
This essential training program may be free of charge if you are insured with ChurchWest & Brotherhood Mutual. Contact info@churchwest.com for eligibility details.
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