New Anti-Sexual Harassment Laws in New York State & New York City

Employers in New York State and New York City should be aware of recent legislation expanding employee protections related to sexual harassment in the workplace.

What’s Happening in New York State?

New York State’s approved budget for fiscal year 2018–2019 includes legislation that addresses workplace sexual harassment.

Under the law, the NYS Department of Labor (DOL) and the Division of Human Rights (DHR) must develop a model anti-sexual harassment policy and a model sexual harassment prevention training program to aid in combatting sexual harassment in the workplace.

All NYS employers are required to either adopt the model sexual harassment policy and training program or create their own, as long as they are equal to, or exceed, the minimum standards developed by the DOL & DHR.

Employers should note that there is no poster requirement for the New York State law. However, effective October 9, 2018, all employers in NYS are required to do the following:

• Give all employees a written anti-sexual harassment policy
• Provide sexual harassment prevention training on an annual basis

What’s Happening in New York City?

The Stop Sexual Harassment in New York City Act takes effect on April 1, 2019. The law applies to all employers in the City. Under the Act, the NYC Commission on Human Rights (CHR) is required to create an anti-sexual harassment rights and responsibilities poster in English and Spanish. Employers must display these posters in a conspicuous location where employees gather.

The Act also requires the CHR to create an information sheet on sexual harassment that employers must provide to all employees at the time of hire.

In addition, employers with 15 or more employees must conduct annual interactive anti-sexual harassment training for all employees, including managers and interns. The Commission on Human Rights is responsible for developing an online interactive training module that employers may use to satisfy this requirement.

Next Steps

New York State

We encourage employers to check the websites of the NYS Division of Human Rights and the Department of Labor (provided below) for further information related to the model anti-sexual harassment policy and the model sexual harassment prevention training program.

New York City

New York City’s Commission on Human Rights has created a Sexual Harassment in the Workplace page on their website, which can be found at the following link: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/cchr/media/sexual-harassment-campaign.page

However, the official notice that must be posted and the information sheet employers must give to new employees are not yet available. As soon as the sexual harassment workplace poster has been released and we are ready to update our New York City poster, we’ll be in touch with our customers.

We Make Compliance Easy

As the most reliable resource for mandatory labor law posters, you can always count on Poster Compliance Center to keep you informed about new laws and related employer requirements.