California Labor & Employment Law Blog

Posted by Vanessa Whang

As previously posted here, the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission has been busy finalizing its proposed regulations to help California employers implement the new California sexual harassment supervisory training law, Government Code Section 12950.1 (AB 1825).

On November 14, 2006, the Commission adopted its final proposed regulations and submitted the regulations to the Office of Administrative Law ("OAL") for review on December 14, 2006. If approved by the OAL, it is expected for the regulations to become effective sometime in February 2007.

The final proposed regulations, which are available for review at www.fehc.ca.gov, specify, among other things, that:

1. independent contractors and temporary workers must be counted as part of the workforce;
2. new supervisory employees who were trained in prior employment do not necessarily need to be immediately re-trained, but the burden is on the new employer to establish that the prior training complied with the requirements of AB 1825;
3. employers can use either an individual tracking method for ensuring that each supervisor is re-trained every two years, or employers may use a “training year” method, whereby some or all supervisors are trained every other calendar year by group; and
4. the term "supervisor" adopt the broad definition in Government Code Section 12926(r) to include "any individuals having the authority, in the interest of the employer to hire, transfer, suspend, lay off, recall, promote, discharge assign, reward, or discipline other employees, or the responsibility to direct them, or to adjust their grievances, or effectively to recommend that action, if, in connection with the foregoing, the exercise of that authority is not of a merely routine or clerical nature, but requires the use of independent judgment."

The final regulations also provide details regarding the required qualifications of the trainers and the content and manner of training (in person, on-line, etc.).

Please check back on this blog on or after February 14, 2007 to find out the status on the proposed regulations.

Carlton DiSante & Freudenberger LLP offers training conducted by its attorneys that fully complies with the requirements of California Government Code Section 12950.1 (AB 1825) and is actively monitoring the proposed regulations discussed above to ensure compliance. For more information about CDF’s training classes, click here.