AB 1825 Sex Harassment Trainer

Sometimes it's frightening the information you get from customer service.

For example, two days ago I spoke with the guy picking up the Fair Employment and Housing Commission (FEHC) telephone line at (415) 557-2325 and asked him about the Commission's progress on the AB 1825 sexual harassment training regulations.

"Wait until December," was the reply.

Now, barely two days later, the FEHC revised regulations appear.

So, what's been revised? Here's my first analysis of the major changes:

• for counting whether an employer has 50 workers, "regularly employed" independent contractors means employing them for each day in a week for at least 20 consecutive weeks
• "two hours" does not mean "two hours of e-learning content for an average reader"; instead, it is defined as "a program that takes the supervisor no less than two hours to complete"
• out-of-state supervisors who "directly supervise" California workers must be trained
• e-learning must provide answers to student questions within two business days
• the "training year" is out; only "individual tracking" is permitted (i.e., has it been two years since this particular supervisor was trained?)
• new supervisors trained at another employer within prior two years doesn't have to be retrained, but only has to read and acknowledge the new employer's anti-harassment policy
• training isn't required on the specific employer's complaint procedures, but only "the essential elements of an anti-harassment policy and how to utilize it...."
• every supervisor must be given a copy of the employer's anti-harassment policy and acknowledge receipt

I note they adopted a "two hours means two hours" rule, rather than the "two hours for an average reader" rule (see my previous post Is it something we did?). This may cause a problem for other online trainers who don't have a way to guarantee two hours for each trainee. At my employer, we do.

There hasn't been much need to blog about AB 1825 in the last few months.

Really, the only new development we expected in 2006 were the official regulations from the Fair Employment and Housing Commission (FEHC). The FEHC issued proposed regulations in December 2005, had a few public meetings, and was to issue the "final" regulations in May.

The May meeting, however, was postponed to June, and ultimately held telephonically on June 20. According to the FEHC website, during the June 20 meeting "the Commission will consider and adopt revised harassment training regulations." Also, "Once the Commission has adopted revised regulations, the Commission will post the revised regulations on this website...."

According to a conversation with the FEHC office, the Commission did have a telephonic meeting regarding the regulations on June 20. But have they posted anything? No.

Do they have any information about the "final" regulations? No, but they'll post it when they do.

When do they estimate that the "final" regulations may be ready for release? The end of the year.

Will they be posting anything before then? No.

So, we can expect to wait perhaps until December 2006 to see the final AB 1825 regulations from the FEHC? Yes.

See, nothing to blog.