Workplace Harassment Training

Harassment Prevention Training … It is not just about being sued!

It is an understatement that your company needs to provide a safe and harassment-free workplace – and employee harassment awareness. Employees need to know their rights and responsibilities under the law, and how to respond in bad situations. They need to know what to do, without fearing for their job, or other types of backlash.

Dupont Learning can help you prevent workplace harassment with automated, interactive, self-paced anti-harassment training (e-Learning) … making it easy for your employees to self-register and take the training – using any device.  We can then keep track your anti-harassment training, and send you automatic completion reports. 

Can Workplace Harassment Happen at Your Company?

harassment prevention training

Fun Experience Goes Too Far

Employees in many organizations are taught to treat customers as “guests”.  And most often this “can do” attitude extends to team members, other departments, or even managers. But sometimes nice people can be taken advantage of, when someone, for some reason, makes an abusive comment or touches a staff member inappropriately. Others may see this happening, but don’t say or do anything about it.

harassment prevention training

Emboldened Managers and Employees

Managers (and employees) may feel emboldened to cross one line, and then another, because of the very real expectation that staff will not do or say anything to ruffle feathers or disrupt the team atmosphere.  Victims of harassment often manage the emotions of their abusers to keep the peace, wondering in silence how to avoid a scene, assault, retaliation. 

harassment prevention training

Employee Sues Your Company

If you can imagine harassment at your organization, you can probably also imagine the employee filing a lawsuit.  And you can envision your company earning the reputation of being a difficult place to work.

That is why strong anti-harassment measures in companies are rapidly spreading across the U.S.  Now, most organizations have a formal harassment policy, complaint protocols, anti-harassment training, and strict anti-harassment enforcement.

 

Mandatory Harassment Training

Sexual harassment law can be confusing.  There are federal mandatory harassment training laws, state laws, and sometimes county and municipality laws.  Here is a list of laws in the states that require harassment prevention training.

California

California

The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) protects California employees from sexual harassment.

  • California sexual harassment law protects both independent contractors and unpaid interns.
  • California law allows harassers to be held personally responsible in court. (Federal law only allows employers to be named in a lawsuit.)
  • California harassment law has no caps on punitive and compensatory damages in court.  (Federal law starts at a $50,000 cap for employers with 15-100 employees and caps larger companies with 500 or more employees at $300,000)
  • California mandates 2-hours of sexual harassment prevention training for all supervisors in companies of 5 or more employees every two years and 1-hour of training for all non-supervisory employees every 2 years.  The October 2018 passage of Senate Bill 1343 dropped the company size requirement from 50 to 5 and included all non-supervisory employees for the first time.  Employers have until January 1st, 2020 to provide the training required in this bill.
  • In addition to sexual harassment, training must include information on abusive conduct (workplace bullying), the federal and California protected groups, and it must specifically cover information about harassment and discrimination of LGBT employees.
  • California protects employees from harassment based on sexual orientation and gender identity with an exemption for religious organizations and requires supervisors to be trained on the subject as part of mandatory sexual harassment training. (The EEOC protects LGBT employees through its interpretation of sex discrimination in Title VII, however federal law does not specifically name sexual orientation and gender identity as protected groups.)
  • Employees in California should be advised of their right to file a complaint with the Department of Fair Employment and Housing within 365 days.  California law provides more protections for employees than federal law, however, employees also have the right to file with the EEOC.  Filing with the EEOC is recommended in only rare circumstances.
Connecticut

Under Connecticut’s new law, employers with three or more employees must provide all employees with two hours of sexual harassment prevention training. Existing employees must be trained by October 1, 2020, and employees hired on or after October 1, 2019, must be trained within six months of hire. In addition, all employers regardless of size will be required to provide sexual harassment training to supervisors. Supervisor training must be provided by October 1, 2020, or within six months of an employee assuming a supervisory role. (Previously, supervisor training was required only for employers with more than 50 employees in Connecticut.) While the new law does not require annual training, Connecticut employers must provide supplemental training not less than every 10 years.

That training must include information concerning the federal and state statutory provisions concerning the illegality of sexual harassment and remedies available to victims of harassment. 

 

Delaware

Deleware

  • Sexual harassment in Delaware workplaces is prohibited by the Delaware Discrimination in Employment Act (DDEA).
  • Delaware law protects all public and private employees in the state from harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation with an exemption for religious organizations. (The EEOC protects LGBT employees through its interpretation of sex discrimination in Title VII, however federal law does not specifically name sexual orientation as a protected group.)
  • Delaware law protects state government employees from harassment and discrimination based on gender identity.
  • Delaware employees should be apprised of their right to file a complaint with the Delaware Office of Human Relations or the EEOC.
  • Supervisors in Delaware must receive 2 hours of sexual harassment prevention training every 2 years.
Illinois

Illinois

  • Sexual harassment is prohibited in Illinois through the Illinois Human Rights Act.
  • Illinois state sexual harassment law applies to employers with 1 or more employees. (Federal law applies to organizations with 15 or more employees.)
  • Illinois protects unpaid interns from sexual harassment as part of the Act. (Federal law does not cover unpaid interns unless they receive significant compensation from benefits like insurance or pensions.)
  • Illinois law provides the same protections to consultants and contractors that it does to employees.
  • Illinois law protects all public and private employees in the state from harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity with an exemption for religious organizations. (The EEOC protects LGBT employees through its interpretation of sex discrimination in Title VII, however federal law does not specifically name sexual orientation and gender identity as protected groups.)
  • Illinois requires that every employee in the state receive sexual harassment prevention training on a yearly basis.
  • Employees in Illinois should be informed of their right to file a claim with the Illinois Department of Human Rights or the EEOC.
Maine

Maine

  • Sexual harassment in Maine is prohibited by The Maine Human Rights Act.
  • Maine state sexual harassment law applies to employers with 1 or more employees. (Federal law applies to organizations with 15 or more employees.)
  • Maine requires all employers with 15 or more employees to conduct sexual harassment prevention training for all employees within 1 year of hire.  Records of this training must be kept for 3 years.  This training has specific requirements.
  • Maine law mandates that employers post a sexual harassment poster in a prominent location in the workplace.
  • Maine requires employers to provide written notice about sexual harassment law annually.

The specific requirements of Maine law on posters, notices and training can be found here.

  •  Maine law protects all public and private employees in the state from harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity with an exemption for religious organizations. (The EEOC protects LGBT employees through its interpretation of sex discrimination in Title VII, however federal law does not specifically name sexual orientation and gender identity as protected groups.)
  • Employees in the state of Maine should be informed of their right to file a claim with the Maine Human Rights Commission.
New York

New York

  • The New York Human Rights Law prohibits sexual harassment in New York state.
  • Sexual harassment law in New York applies to all employers. (Federal law applies to organizations with 15 or more employees.)
  • New York employers are required to develop a sexual harassment policy.
  • New York state law protects unpaid interns from sexual harassment. (Federal only protects unpaid interns if they receive significant compensation from another source such as insurance or pensions.
  • Beginning Oct 9th, 2018, New York state will require all employers with 1 employee or more to conduct sexual harassment prevention training.
  • Employees in the state of New York must be informed of their right to file a complaint with the New York Division of Human Rights.

SUBSCRIBE FOR ANTI-HARASSMENT TRAINING

When you purchase a subscription for Harassment Prevention Training, you have access to the course for 12 months. If you are a manager or the owner, purchase an admin account to receive automated reports.  Use the reports to identify employees who have not yet taken the training, and remind them of their training requirement.

Combine Harassment Prevention Training with other compliance training programs from Dupont Learning

You might want to consider combining Harassment Prevention Training, with other courses from our Business Skills, or Workplace Safety libraries. Dupont Learning can also create cutom e-learning courses from scratch. Finally, we can also host your courses on our eLearnepot.com LMS.

Tell us about your company.

Tell us about your company, and training objectives.  We can help you choose the best plan to significantly improve your employee harassment awareness.