California's new Sexual Harassment Prevention law goes into effect on January 1, 2006. With this deadline looming, business owners are scrambling for compliance information.

I was speaking recently at a business network meeting when a business owner asked whether she needed to be concerned with California's new Sexual Harassment law, AB1825. This business owner runs her company with 18 full-time, 20 part-time employees, 8 temp workers, and 5 sales subcontractors who are located in several states.

Requirement: 50 + employees

On the surface it appears that she does not meet the 50+ employee requirement that determines whether she must train her supervisors. Taking a closer look at the law, however, reveals that temporary service workers and independent contractors, regardless of where they are located are included in the total count of employees.

Another business owner wanted to know whether or not they could continue to train in the same manner as the previous year's training.

Requirement: Training must encompass all aspects of harassment, discrimination, and retaliation and last at least 2 hours.

The training must address retaliation and: sex, race/color, religion, age, and national origin harassment and discrimination. Typically previous trainings did not include these areas.

Requirement: A system in place to track and document employee participation and compliance

Therefore the answer is maybe yes, maybe no. If the training included all forms of harassment and discrimination and retaliation AND was 2 hours long AND tracked employee participation throughout the training AND assessed their understanding of the material AND you can provide proof, then yes, continue to train as in previous years.

A business owner, one on a very tight budget, commented "it is good that I only have to train 5 supervisors, because I can't afford to train more."

Requirement: Businesses must provide a harassment-free workplace for everyone

With this in mind, how harassment-free will the workplace be if this owner only trains the supervisors? And if a claim is made by the employee, will the money saved by training only supervisors, be enough to pay for attorneys, lost production time, and/or punitive damages? Probably not.

Conclusion:
Regardless of the number of employees, location of employees, or previous training, employers need to both protect their company from harassment and discrimination claims and comply with the law. Ensure that your company is protected by training all employees in harassment and discrimination prevention.
AB1825 in Brief:

• Applies to businesses having 50+ employees.
  
• All 50 employees do not need to be located in California. --
• Includes part time, full time, temporary service workers, independent contractors, in or OUT of the state.
  
• Supervisors hired on or after July 1, 2005 must complete training by January 1, 2006,
  
• Persons hired or promoted into supervisory positions after July 1, 2005 must receive training within six months of their hire or promotion,
  
• Training must be ongoing and repeated every two years.
  
• Supervisors include employees who simply "recommend" hiring, firing, promotions, etc. also be considered to be "supervisors" and must receive sexual harassment training as well.
  
• Training must cover all aspects of harassment and discrimination and retaliation and be at least 2 hours long
  
• Requires a system in place to track and document employee participation and compliance
  
  For more information on AB1825, visit http://chromezebra.com/pages/AB1825.htm.
  
  Get the training you need online, quickly, conveniently, and economically. Sign up for a course with Chrome Zebra.
  
  Rhonda Goetz
  Chrome Zebra, Inc.
  Helping Employers Prevent Harassment and Discrimination Lawsuits
  
  Rhonda@chromezebra.com
  866.241.9927
  http://www.chromezebra.com
  
  Rhonda Goetz is the owner and CEO of Chrome Zebra, Inc., an online human resource training company. She is also an authorized harassment and discrimination trainer and online instructional designer.
  
  Her online courses provide businesses with an alternate training method that saves time and money. Employees train at their desks or workstations, and can train anytime. Businesses no longer have to lose production time to large training seminars, or hire expensive consultants or be locked into a set training schedule. Online training is economical as well; the cost is approximately $25 or less for each employee.
  
  Disclaimer - This publication and the information included in it are not intended to serve as a substitute for consultation with an attorney. Specific legal issues, concerns and conditions always require the advice of appropriate legal professionals.
  
  
  Tags: business owners, business owner, tight budget, taking a closer look, independent contractors, previous year, subcontractors, time employees, business network, retaliation, national origin, previous years