Description
California Sexual Harassment Employee Fact Sheet Packet
Help satisfy California employee information requirements with the California Sexual Harassment Employee Fact Sheet Packet. California employers must provide employees with information explaining the illegality of sexual harassment, available legal remedies, complaint procedures, and protections against retaliation.
What's Included
- Quantity: 20 employee fact sheets per packet
- Size: 5.5"W x 8"H
- Language: Available in English or Spanish
- Format: Individual fact sheets for distribution to employees
- Topic: California sexual harassment prevention and employee rights
What Is the California Sexual Harassment Fact Sheet?
The California Sexual Harassment Fact Sheet provides employees with information about their right to a workplace free from unlawful sexual harassment and explains important protections available under California's Fair Employment and Housing Act.
The notice helps employees understand prohibited conduct, how workplace harassment can be reported, available legal remedies, and protections against retaliation.
Are California Employers Required to Provide Sexual Harassment Information?
Yes. California employers must provide employees with information concerning the illegality of sexual harassment and available legal remedies.
The California Civil Rights Department provides both a Sexual Harassment poster and Sexual Harassment fact sheet. Either document may be distributed to employees to help satisfy the applicable employee information requirement.
An employer may also provide alternative written information when it contains all information required by California law.
When Should Employees Receive the Sexual Harassment Information?
Employers should incorporate required sexual harassment information into their employee onboarding and workplace harassment-prevention procedures.
Employers must ensure employees actually receive the required sexual harassment information rather than relying solely on a notice displayed in the workplace.
What Is Sexual Harassment Under California Law?
California law prohibits workplace harassment based on sex and other protected characteristics. Sexual harassment can include unwelcome sexual advances and visual, verbal, or physical conduct of a sexual nature.
Sexual harassment can occur between individuals of the same or different sexes and does not have to involve sexual desire.
What Are Examples of Sexual Harassment?
Depending on the circumstances, prohibited sexual harassment can include conduct such as:
- Unwanted sexual advances
- Offering employment benefits in exchange for sexual favors
- Threatening negative employment consequences after rejection of sexual advances
- Sexual gestures
- Sexually suggestive objects, pictures, cartoons, or communications
- Derogatory sexual comments, slurs, or jokes
- Sexually degrading comments
- Unwanted touching
- Assault
- Blocking or interfering with an individual's movement
- Other prohibited verbal, visual, or physical conduct
What Is Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment?
Quid pro quo sexual harassment can occur when an employment benefit or employment decision is conditioned on an employee accepting or rejecting sexual conduct.
Examples can include offering a promotion or another employment benefit in exchange for sexual favors or threatening an adverse employment action when an employee rejects unwanted sexual advances.
What Is a Hostile Work Environment?
A hostile work environment can occur when prohibited harassment is sufficiently severe or pervasive to create an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment under applicable California law.
Whether conduct constitutes unlawful harassment depends on the circumstances, including the nature, frequency, severity, and context of the conduct.
Who Can Commit Workplace Harassment?
Workplace harassment is not limited to supervisors or managers.
Depending on the circumstances, prohibited harassment can involve:
- Supervisors
- Managers
- Coworkers
- Customers
- Clients
- Vendors
- Contractors
- Other third parties encountered through work
Protection Against Retaliation
California law prohibits unlawful retaliation against employees for exercising protected rights involving workplace discrimination or harassment.
Protected activities can include reporting harassment, participating in an investigation, filing a complaint, supporting another employee's complaint, or otherwise exercising rights protected by California law.
What Must California Employers Do to Prevent Harassment?
California employers have responsibilities to take reasonable steps to prevent and correct unlawful workplace harassment.
Employer responsibilities include:
- Providing employees with required sexual harassment information
- Maintaining a written harassment, discrimination, and retaliation prevention policy
- Providing employees with an appropriate complaint process
- Responding appropriately to harassment complaints
- Conducting timely and impartial investigations when appropriate
- Taking appropriate corrective action when misconduct occurs
- Providing sexual harassment prevention training when required
California Harassment Prevention Policy
California employers must develop and distribute a written policy addressing harassment, discrimination, and retaliation.
The policy must explain prohibited conduct, identify protected categories, provide employees with a complaint process, prohibit retaliation, and contain other information required by California law.
Providing this Sexual Harassment Fact Sheet does not replace the employer's separate obligation to maintain and distribute an appropriate harassment, discrimination, and retaliation prevention policy.
Sexual Harassment Prevention Training
California employers with five or more employees are generally required to provide sexual harassment prevention training to supervisory and nonsupervisory employees in accordance with California law.
Covered employers generally must provide:
- At least two hours of sexual harassment prevention training to supervisory employees
- At least one hour of sexual harassment prevention training to nonsupervisory employees
- Training at least once every two years and within applicable timeframes for newly hired or promoted employees
Providing this fact sheet does not replace applicable California sexual harassment prevention training requirements.
Is This a Workplace Poster?
No. This product contains individual Sexual Harassment Fact Sheets intended for distribution to employees.
California employers have separate workplace posting requirements, including the required California Law Prohibits Workplace Discrimination & Harassment poster.
Employers should maintain required workplace posters separately from information that must be provided directly to employees.
Sexual Harassment Fact Sheet vs. Sexual Harassment Poster
The California Civil Rights Department provides both a Sexual Harassment fact sheet and a Sexual Harassment poster containing employee information.
California employers may distribute either the applicable CRD Sexual Harassment poster or fact sheet to help satisfy the employee information requirement.
This packet provides individual fact sheets that can be conveniently distributed to employees as part of an employer's onboarding and harassment-prevention procedures.
English and Spanish Sexual Harassment Fact Sheets
This packet is available in English and Spanish. Employers should provide employees with appropriate sexual harassment information based on applicable California requirements and the languages used by their workforce.
The California Civil Rights Department also makes sexual harassment information available in additional languages.
How Can an Employee Report Sexual Harassment?
Employees should follow their employer's harassment prevention and complaint procedures when reporting suspected workplace harassment.
Employees who believe their rights have been violated may also contact the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) for information concerning workplace discrimination and harassment protections and the complaint process.
California New Hire and Workplace Compliance Resources
Labor Law Compliance Center provides California employers with new hire pamphlets, employee notices, labor law posters, sexual harassment materials, IWC Wage Orders, and specialty compliance products. Visit our California Labor Law Posters page or browse our California State Specialty Posters for additional California workplace compliance products.
