California State Agencies Fail to Provide Sexual Harassment Training for all Supervisors

06-06-2019

According to a recent investigation, nearly 60 percent of California State agencies surveyed by the State Personnel Board did not provide the state mandated sexual harassment training. This 60% number is up from 25 percent in 2016 and 32 percent in 2017. Some larger agencies, like the Department of Corrections, failed to train hundreds of supervisors, while several smaller agencies trained no one.
 
Since 2005, employers in the state of California have been required to comply with AB 1825, a bill which mandated that “all California employers with 50 or more employees must provide two hours of sexual harassment prevention training (excluding breaks) to their supervisors and managers every two years.”
In 2018, Senate Bill 1343 lowered the number of employees to five and included non-supervisors in the mandate. SB 1343 requires covered employers to provide at least two hours of sexual harassment prevention training and education to all supervisory employees and at least one hour of such training to all non-supervisory employees in California, by January 1, 2020. Training and education must be provided once every two years thereafter, as specified under the new law.
 
According to a report by the Sacramento Bee, between 2014 and 2017, the state paid more than $25 million to settle sexual harassment claims. Of the 10 most expensive, seven involved agencies that did not provide supervisor training, according to State Personnel Board records.