As of September 6, 2018, all New York City employers must conspicuously post a sexual harassment prevention poster designed by the Commission on Human Rights in both English and Spanish and distribute an information sheet to individual employees.
This new requirement is part of the Stop Sexual Harassment in NYC Act, signed by Mayor Bill de Blasio on May 9, 2018. The law also requires employers with 15 or more employees to conduct annual interactive anti-sexual harassment training for all employees, including supervisory and managerial employees, starting in April 2019. Employers may provide their own annual anti-sexual harassment training or utilize an online training model developed by the Commission on Human Rights. Employers must keep records of the trainings, including a signed employee acknowledgement. The training is required after 90 days of initial hire for employees who work more than 80 hours in a calendar year who perform work on a full-time or part-time basis, including interns.
Employers must also comply with new state-wide legislation passed as part of the 2019 Executive Budget that amends the New York Labor Law to require all employers to provide a written sexual harassment prevention policy and conduct annual sexual harassment training. The new state-wide legislation requires all employers to provide sexual harassment prevention training to all employees at least once per year, and to new hires as soon as possible, that equals or exceeds minimum standards set by the Department of Labor and Division of HumanRights. The state-wide policy and training requirements will go into effect on October 9, 2018, and employees must complete training that meets the minimum standards by October 9, 2019.
