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AB 1825 Sex Harassment Trainer

A free resource for California employers about the sexual harassment training law (AB 1825).

FEHC issues revised regs

Tuesday, February 27, 2007
In response to the disapproval of its prior proposed rules, the Fair Employment and Housing Commission issued revised AB 1825 regulations today. Little has changed.

The new revisions clarify the requirements to be a "subject matter expert" by, basically, requiring all "SMEs" to have three years' experience advising employers about harassment, discrimination, and retaliation. (I don't know why three years' advising employees is not recognized as qualifying experience; it should be. Either the FEHC hasn't noticed this or else they're in bed with management consultants who want to avoid competition from employee consultants.)

The revisions also raise the standards for AB 1825 qualifying trainers, by requiring them to be SMEs or to have three years' experience providing training on AB1825 topics.

Finally, there's also a typo on page 3 of the revisions: Subdivision (a)(8)(C) refers to subdivision (a)(10)(D), but the reference should be to subdivision (a)(10)(C).

The revised regulations are back open for a 15-day public comment period, and the FEHC is next expected to act at their March 27, 2007 meeting.

FEHC Regs Rejected

Thursday, February 15, 2007
The Fair Employment and Housing Commission (FEHC) proposed regulations for AB 1825 were rejected by the California Office of Administrative Law (OAL). The OAL is a state agency that reviews (and must approve) all proposed regulations.

According to the OAL, the proposed rules violated the requirement that regulations be "clear." Specifically, OAL said the FEHC's proposed definitions of the terms "subject matter expert" and "qualified trainer" could not be clearly understood.

In response, the FEHC announced that it would revise the regulations to "clarify" the disputed definitions and comply with the OAL's requirements. Further changes and a potential "final" revision of the regulations may be announced at the FEHC's March 27, 2007, meeting.

Note: It's important to remember that AB 1825 is still valid and remains in effect; only the FEHC's proposed regulations were suspended. Even as we await the FEHC to clarify its regulations, California employers must continue to provide anti-harassment training to supervisors every two years.