Sexual Harassment Training Deadline Extended to Jan. 1

Connecticut employers now have until Jan. 1, 2021 to comply with the state’s expanded sexual harassment prevention training mandate that lawmakers approved last year.
The state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunity extended the original Oct. 1, 2020 deadline due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is a blanket extension and does not require a request to be made,” the CHRO said in a notice on its website announcing the change.
Previously, the agency gave employers until Sept. 9 to request a 90-day extension of the Oct. 1 deadline to comply with the new training requirement—providing the reason for the request was related to the virus.
But the new directive says no reason is needed.
State lawmakers expanded sexual harassment prevention training requirements last year by mandating that employers with three or more employees take on new obligations to provide the training to all their workers.
Before the new law was enacted, Connecticut businesses with 50 or more employees were required to provide supervisors with two hours of the training.
Connecticut’s employers were looking at the possibility of millions of dollars in training costs, but CHRO followed CBIA’s suggestion to provide an online training video that meets the law’s requirements.
The course is available for free on the CHRO website.
CBIA’s Mark Soycher says for new hires after July 1, 2020, the law’s existing deadline requiring training to be completed within six months of the hiring will still presumably apply when the six-month time period lands after Jan. 1, 2021.

For more information, contact CBIA’s Mark Soycher (860.244.1900) | @HRHotline