Devoted to Corporate Attorneys, Corporate Lawyers, and Corporate Counsel

The following is not meant to be legal advice. 

As many people have known, in California, for the past 4 years, there has been legislation requiring supervisors to be trained on sexual harassment prevention.  The Fair Employment and Housing Commission has approved final regulations on California's sexual harassment training law. On August 17, 2007, the law requires any person doing business in California who employs 50 or more employees or contractors to provide a minimum of two hours of sexual harassment training to California supervisors. This is not new information, but there were many open issues on the requirements of the training. 

The new regulations provide guidance on the definition of what means "effective interactive training". Companies who prefer e-learning or computer-based training must make sure that the programs are developed by a trainer and an instructional designer, who provides a link or directions on how to contact a trainer to answer questions no more than two business days after the question is asked. After the training, there must be documentation to prove the supervisor attended the entire training session and participated. It seems the training cannot be just a dial in number for someone to call in and listen while doing other work.

The qualified trainer can be an attorney, human resources professional with at least two years of practical experience dealing with harassment and discrimination issues, or a professor or instructor in a law school, college, or university with a post-graduate degree or a California teaching credential and either 20 instruction hours or two or more years of experience teaching about employment law under the Fair Employment and Housing Act or Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.  This means that a company cannot just have anyone internally do the training if it wants to save money on hiring an outside trainer.