Compare New York State & New York City Training Requirements

Training Requirement

Effective Date and Deadline Effective

Effective October 9, 2018. The deadline to train all employees is October 9, 2019.

Effective April 1, 2019. Deadline of April 1, 2020, to have all employees trained.

All employers, regardless of size, must train all employees including:

• All Regular employees
• All Part-time employees
• There is no minimum hours requirement (Even if an employee just works for one day, or if the employee is based out of state but works for just one day in New York, that employee is covered by the training requirement.) 

Beginning on October 9, 2019, all contractors who bid on NY State contracts must certify under penalty of perjury that they have provided annual sexual harassment training to all employees, including their employees outside the state of New York. 

A new section added to the New York Human Rights Law that prohibits sexual harassment of non-employees in the workplace. The term “non-employee” includes:

• contractors, subcontractors, vendors, consultants or other persons providing services pursuant to a contract in the workplace—or an employee of any of these.
• An employer will be liable when the employer (including its agents and supervisors) knew or should have known that the non-employee was subjected to sexual harassment in the employer’s workplace, and the employer failed to take immediate and appropriate corrective action.

This section took effect in April of 2018.

Must provide training annually. Employers can track completion:

• based on the calendar year,
• the anniversary of each employee’s start date,
• or any other date the employer chooses.

The State does not set a specific time frame for training new hires. 

However, NY State final guidance encourages training of new employees as soon as possible, noting that employers may be liable for the actions of employees immediately upon hire.

• A signed employee acknowledgment (which may be electronic).
• Training records must be maintained for at least three years.
• Training records must be made available for inspection upon request by the commission. 

Additional Information

By Sept. 6, New York City employers must display a poster in English and Spanish, (designed by the NYC Commission on Human Rights), about anti-sexual harassment rights and responsibilities. 

All New York employers must implement and distribute an anti-sexual harassment policy including a complaint form.

By Sept. 6, New York City employers must distribute a fact sheet about sexual harassment (created by the commission) to their existing employees and to all new employees upon hire, or they may include the fact sheet in their employee handbooks instead.

By Oct. 9, every employer in New York state must have a written sexual harassment prevention policy in place and distribute it to its employees. 

Agreements settling claims of sexual harassment cannot include non-disclosure provisions unless the condition of confidentiality is the employee’s “preference.” 

• Employees must be given 21 days to consider any settlement agreement and to decide whether they prefer that it contain a non-disclosure provision.
• Employees must then be given 7 days to revoke the agreement.

Employment contracts cannot require employees to submit to mandatory arbitration to resolve any allegation or claim of sexual harassment.

Effective July 11, 2018

Note: Union employers, the terms of a collective bargaining agreement may continue to require arbitration of sexual harassment claims.

The statute of limitations for sexual harassment claims under the New York City Human Rights Law is extended from one year to three years.

Note: New York City Human Rights Law to applies to employers with fewer than four employees.

NY State requires the training must be “interactive” require employee participation.

• As defined in the NY State model training document, the training should include as many of the following elements as possible:
• Include a live trainer available during the session to answer questions
• Be web-based with questions asked of employees as part of the program
• Accommodate questions asked by employees, and/or
• Require feedback from employees about the training and the materials presented

The training must be “interactive,” (defined as “participatory”).

Online training may suffice if it is interactive.

Define sexual harassment in a manner consistent with guidance issued by the NY DOL.

Provide examples of conduct that would constitute unlawful sexual harassment. 

Inform employees that:

• sexual harassment is a form of unlawful discrimination under local law.
• sexual harassment is a form of unlawful discrimination under state and federal law. 

The training must inform employees:

• the internal complaint process available to employees through their employer.
• describe the complaint process available
• the NYC Commission on Human Rights,
• the New York State Division of Human Rights,
• the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
• Plus, contact information for each.