Currently, under California Cal. Gov. Code § 12950.1 (“AB 1825”), employers with 50 or more employees are required to provide two hours of classroom or other effective, interactive training in sexual harassment prevention to California supervisory employees every two years. New supervisors must be trained within six months of being promoted or hired into a supervisory position and then trained every two years.
Effective January 1, 2015, employers will also be required to provide as part of their AB 1825 sexual harassment training program, training in the prevention of “abusive conduct.” Under a recent bill (CA A 2053) that adds the new training component, “abusive conduct” means:
- conduct of an employer or employee in the workplace, with malice, that a reasonable person would find hostile, offensive, and unrelated to an employer’s legitimate business interests.
Abusive conduct may include repeated infliction of verbal abuse, such as the use of derogatory remarks, insults, and epithets, verbal or physical conduct that a reasonable person would find threatening, intimidating, or humiliating, or the gratuitous sabotage or undermining of a person’s work performance. Single acts do not constitute abusive conduct, unless especially severe and egregious.
Employers must track AB 1825 training for each supervisor and keep records of the training provided for at least two years. The next training deadline is December 31, 2015.