Time Is Up for Connecticut Employers to Address Workplace Harassment

As a reminder to Connecticut employers, starting on October 1, 2019, employers with three or more employees must provide two hours of sexual harassment training to all employees, not just supervisors, under the Time’s Up Act, the new state law. Furthermore, all employers — regardless of  the size of their workforce  — must provide two hours of sexual harassment prevention training to supervisors by October 1, 2020, or within six months of an employee taking on a supervisory role.

New training requirements apply to all

These new requirements represent a big change from the previous law, which only applied to organizations with 50 or more employees and required employers provide only supervisors with sexual harassment training.  Specifically, the new law requires that —

• All employers in Connecticut, regardless of size, must provide two hours of sexual harassment training to supervisory employees by October 1, 2020, or within six months of an employee assuming a supervisory role. For employees promoted to supervisor on October 1, 2019, the deadline to complete training could be as early as April 1, 2020.
  
• New employees hired on or after October 1, 2019 must be trained within six months of hire, with periodic retraining not less than every 10 years. Again, the potential deadline for employees who start working on October 1, 2019 would be April 1, 2020.
  
• Existing employees must be trained by October 1, 2020, with periodic retraining not less than every 10 years.
  
• Employees who received two hours of sexual harassment training after October 1, 2018, do not have to be retrained by October 1, 2020, however, they must be retrained not less than every 10 years.

State to provide training guidance

The law also requires the Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities (CHRO) to develop an online training and education video and make it available to employers at no cost. Although this video is not yet available, the CHRO website indicates it will be by the October 1, 2019 deadline.

Traliant Insight

With the new state law, known as the Time’s Up Act, going into effect on October 1, 2019,  Connecticut employers should be revising their sexual harassment policies, training programs and schedules to meet the new requirements. The deadline to train some employees — new hires and those promoted to supervisor on October 1, 2019 — could be as early as April 1, 2020. The new law provides an opportunity to go beyond the mandated topics and provide a modern, interactive training experience that equips employees and supervisors with the knowledge and tools they need to respond appropriately to incidents of harassment and create a respectful, inclusive workplace culture.