Contractors with five or more employees have until January 1, 2021, to ensure that all employees have received either one-hour (non-supervisory employees) or two-hours (supervisory employees) of sexual harassment prevention training pursuant California law.
 
Please note that:
 
  • A supervisor is anyone with authority to hire, fire, assign, transfer, discipline, or reward other employees.
  • Union construction flexibility was place in statute (SB 530 of 2019) to ensure that the harassment training can follow a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) covered employee within the union multiemployer construction setting if the employee changes employers. SB 530 also authorized Joint labor management apprenticeship training committees and other labor management committees to provide the requisite training. A quick summary of SB 530 is below.
 
  • Employers must provide the sexual harassment prevention training to new nonsupervisory employees within six months of hire and to new supervisory employees within six months of hire or the assumption of a supervisory position. The option to verify that a CBA covered employee has undergone training within the past two years rather than provide the training, per SB 530, still applies.
 
  • Pursuant to the original statute, the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) was required to develop, and make available on its website, online sexual harassment training courses with a method for employees who have completed the training to print out a certificate of completion. The DFHE online training is free, a link to the training is here: https://www.dfeh.ca.gov/shpt/
 
Summary of SB 530 – Union construction industry: harassment prevention flexibility
 
SB 530 provides that:
 
  • A construction employer, that employs workers pursuant to a CBA, may satisfy the Fair Employment and Housing Act’s sexual harassment training and education requirement by demonstrating that the worker has received the requisite amount of sexual harassment prevention training and education within the past two years from the employer itself, another employer signatory to the same CBA or an associated apprenticeship program, labor management trust, or labor management cooperation committee.
 
  • A state-approved building and construction trades apprenticeship program, labor management training trust, or labor management cooperation committee may provide sexual harassment prevention training and education to covered workers on behalf of an employer.
 
  • Should an apprenticeship program, labor management training trust, or labor management cooperation committee provide the sexual harassment prevention training and education, the law requires a certificate of completion of training to be maintained by the apprenticeship program, labor management trust, or labor management cooperation committee for a period of not less than four years. 
 
  • An apprenticeship program, labor management trust, or labor management cooperation committee that provides the sexual harassment prevention training must maintain a database of the sexual harassment prevention training and must provide verification of an employee’s training status upon the request of an employer that is a party to the associated multiemployer collective bargaining agreement.

If there are any additional questions on the following, please feel to contact Eddie.

Eddie Bernacchi
Politico Group
1127 11th Street Suite 747
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 444-3770 Ext 1
Fax: (916) 442-6437

NCFCA is here to serve as a resource, for questions contact our office.