The California Fair Employment and Housing Commission has issued proposed regulations clarifying mandatory sexual harassment training requirements.

The California Fair Employment and Housing Commission (FEHC) adopted final proposed regulations. These final proposed regulations interpret Government Code section 12950.1, aka Assembly Bill 1825 (also part of the California Fair Employment and Housing Act), which requires organizations with 50 or more employees in California to provide interactive sexual harassment prevention training to their supervisors every two years, taught by an expert.

The final proposed regulations clarify who is an "employee" and who is a "supervisor" for purposes of triggering the training requirement; what qualifies as "interactive" training (webinars, audio or video presentations with classroom instruction and an opportunity to submit questions that must be answered within 2 days); details on content and material to be covered in the training; how to calculate the two year re-training period; how the training requirements apply to new businesses; and qualifications for the trainers.

The Commission has until December 16, 2006 to submit a regulatory package to the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) for its review of the final regulations. OAL then has 30 days to review and either approve the proposed regulatory package or disapprove and require further changes. If approved, OAL then sends the regulations to the Secretary of State and after 30 days the regulations become effective. Based on this timetable, the Commission anticipates its modifications to the sexual harassment training regulations will become effective February 1, 2007.

According to Adrienne N. Newsom, Attorney At Law, who provides workplace harassment training, "when these regulations go into effect, training programs that previously complied with the law likely will need to be changed." Of particular concern are the requirements for audio and video presentations as well as online training program requirements. These regulatory changes affect employers in all fields and industries so long as they have 50 or more employees in California.