If your company has at least five employees, the SB 1343 deadline to provide training to your California workforce is January 1, 2021 (so essentially, end of year 2020).
Recently, in light of the pandemic, Connecticut extended its original October 2020 deadline by three months, with the burden on the employer to request an extension. On the other hand, Illinois has announced it will not be extending its end-of-2020 deadline.
These developments had me wondering which way California might go in terms of keeping or extending the current training deadline. My prediction: California will be like Illinois and will not extend the current deadline.
Photo by Jules Bss on Unsplash
There are several reasons. First, like Illinois’, California’s deadline has already been extended one year (from end of 2019 to end of 2020). Second, to extend the original 2019 deadline, the California Legislature had to get involved, passing SB 778 as urgency legislation. (Connecticut’s decision was made by a state commission.) Third, California’s requirement may be met via qualified online training – either virtual live instructor training or eLearning – making it easily accessible even for work-from-home employees.
So employers with California employees won’t want to find themselves playing chicken with that end of 2020 SB 1343 deadline. If you have not yet provided training and want to ensure compliance, it will be safest to ensure that training is completed before the end of this year. If you’d like to book a live virtual harassment prevention webinar with an engaging and skilled virtual trainer, contact us.
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