On October 9, 2018, New York State’s sexual harassment law, officially known as the New York Labor Law, came into force following final amendments. Under the new legislation, companies with staff in New York State must have implemented sexual harassment training for all staff. One of the key amendments to the legislation is that the training must now be completed by October 9, 2019, rather than by January 2019.

You can find a host of compliance tools, such as guides, policy templates and more by searching our sexual harassment prevention resource page.

What does the new sexual harassment law cover?

Non-employees in a workplace covered

New York State Human Rights Law was amended in April 2018 to protect non-employees, i.e. 1099ers, contractors, vendors and consultants, from sexual harassment in the workplace. An employer may be found liable if they failed to take immediate action against harassment of a non-employee. This is an important change because prior to April 2019, you had to be a W2 employee to be covered by the state sexual harassment law which was similar to the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964.

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VinciWorks continuously receives questions on the topic of sexual harassment. We
have separated our answers to the questions into three categories: general
questions about sexual harassment, questions about behavior at work and
questions frequently asked by supervisors. The full list of questions and answers is
included in VinciWorks’ sexual harassment training, MyStory: Harassment and Bullying at
Work. Here are just some of the questions we have answered on the topic. You can access all the FAQs from the sexual harassment prevention resource page.

Should I avoid giving compliments?

Giving someone a genuine compliment about the way they look or dress is not the
same as sexual harassment. It can become sexual harassment however if
accompanied by inappropriate behavior, such as leering, catcalls, sexual innuendo,
or comments given to only one person repeatedly. Comments that infantilize or
sexualize a person are always inappropriate, these could include:
“Hey baby / doll / sexy / beautiful…”
“Why can’t everyone look as beautiful as you?”

What if the harassment is not sexual, but directed at me because of mygender?

Non-sexual conduct is still considered unlawful if it qualifies as being severe,
pervasive and singles you out because of your gender. For example, a supervisor
stating that he doesn’t think a woman should be doing your job and deliberately
insults and ridicules you because of your gender is harassment. Insulting someone
because they do not conform to stereotypes about how someone of a particular
gender should behave is also harassment. For example, degrading a man because
he is a kindergarten teacher or a nurse.

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Governor Cuomo and Mayor De Blasio have been busy putting the city and state on
the right side of #MeToo, the global anti-sexual harassment movement. A flurry of
new laws and requirements on New York State and City businesses have been
added to the books, with more coming into force over the next few months. VinciWorks’ free guide will help to ensure your business is ready for October 9, the key date by which all New York State businesses must provide compliant training on sexual harassment.

Download guide

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In a recent episode of award-winning John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight, the comedian tackled the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace. The episode was extended to include an interview with Anita Hill, famous for her case against Judge Thomas in 1991. While extremely funny, John Oliver’s take on sexual harassment, coupled with his interview with Anita, gave light to the issues of sexual harassment, the progress, if any, made on tackling the issue over the last three decades and what we can do address it. Here are a few things you may have learned from the episode.

1. There is no reason to fear hiring women

While John Oliver ridicules a man who asks “what are the rules?”, there does seem to be a recurring theme throughout the episode – men are worried they will be wrongly accused of sexual harassment. Author and life coach Tony Robins recently came under fire for his anecdote of a man who wouldn’t hire a woman because she was very attractive and it would be “too big a risk”. This fear can be abated by providing clear guidelines on what is considered inappropriate behavior. Combating sexual harassment starts with ensuring a culture of awareness and sensitivity towards the problem. Anita Hill emphasized this, saying that while there are a tiny amount of false accusations, we mustn’t “make rules around the things that rarely happen until we finish up making the rules around the things that are happening regularly.”

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