On Tuesday, March 27, California’s Fair Employment & Housing Commission (FEHC) met to adopt revisions to its AB 1825 regulations. These revisions were driven by the public commentary that followed the Commission’s February 27, 2007 version of the regs, which were designed to accommodate change requests from California’s Office of Administrative Law (OAL).
The OAL’s sole concern is the need for more clarity about who is actually qualified to create and/or present sexual harassment training programs, whether live or online.
In other words, who is a qualified expert under AB 1825?
The February 27 version of the regs made a distinction between “Subject Matter Experts” (those who know the content very well) and “trainers” (those who are, presumably, good at actually conducting a sexual harassment training session). The current draft eliminates the definition of Subject Matter Expert and moves the relevant qualifications to its definition of “trainer.”
“Trainer” is Now the Critical Definition A “Trainer is defined as:
(A) Attorneys admitted for two or more years to the bar of any state in the United States and whose practice includes employment law under the Fair Employment and Housing Act and/or Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, or
(B) Human resource professionals with two or more years practical experience in one or more of the following: a) designing or conducting discrimination, retaliation and sexual harassment prevention training; b) responding to sexual harassment complaints or other discrimination complaints; c) conducting investigations of sexual harassment complaints; or d) advising employers or employees regarding discrimination, retaliation and sexual harassment prevention, or
(C) Professors and instructors in law schools, colleges or universities who have a post-graduate degree or California teaching credential and either 20 instruction hours or two or more years of experience in a law school, college or university teaching about employment law under the Fair Employment and Housing Act and/or Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.
An additional change to note is that the experience thresholds have been reduced slightly from the February 27 draft — from three years to two years, and from 25 instruction hours to 20.
Team Training Is Permitted:
The regulations then go on to say that individuals who do not meet these expertise criteria may “team teach with a trainer in classroom or webinar trainings provided that the trainer supervises these individuals and the trainer is available throughout the training to answer questions from training attendees.”
So you can still have a classroom trainer who is not an “expert” in harassment and discrimination prevention – but an expert does need to be with him/her, in real time, during the session. Most organizations doing classroom or webinar training, in all likelihood, will choose to have it conducted by someone with expertise in harassment and discrimination prevention and who meets the “trainer” defintion. It just seems far more effective and efficient.
So Many Versions of the AB 1825 Regs! Should I Care?
Given the repeated revisions, you might be asking yourself if you should even be paying attention to these sexual harassment training regulations until they are actually finalized. We absolutely recommend that you do.
The changes currently being made relate only to the issue of expertise. Frankly, any “good faith efforts” to comply with the text of the law (which is in effect – many of you have a December 31, 2007 deadline looming), should be tied to a program developed and/or delivered by true experts in sexual harassment prevention. As to the rest of the regs, while they may not be technically effective as of yet, they (a) represent basic good instructional design; and (b) are something you are going to have to contend with in any event, for many years to come.
You should be planning your sexual harassment training as an ongoing process, not a one time event. So what you use over the next few months before the regs become effective, is what you should be comfortable using further down the road, when these extensive regs are non-negotiable.
Stayed tuned to this blog for the latest updates on California, and beyond …o