October 2018

New York State Issues Final Guidance on Sexual Harassment Prevention Policies & Training

As described in prior alerts in May and September of this year, effective October 9, 2018, employers in New York State must adopt a sexual harassment prevention policy (which must include, among other things, a complaint form) and conduct annual, interactive sexual harassment prevention training for employees. While New York previously issued a draft policy, complaint form, employee training program pertaining to sexual harassment and Frequently Asked Questions, on October 1, 2018, New York State issued final versions of these documents.

The final versions of these documents include the following notable changes:

• The initial deadline to provide New York State employees with interactive sexual harassment training is October 9, 2019 (as opposed to the year-end deadline included in the draft version). Note that New York City employers with 15 or more employees must provide such training by April 1, 2019.
• Newly hired employees are now required to be trained “as soon as possible” as opposed to the thirty day time frame included in the draft documents.

A link to the updated guidance can be found here.

---

For more information, please contact your CSG attorney or the author listed below.

Margaret O'Rourke Wood | Member | mwood@csglaw.com | (973) 530-2063