New York City Council And New York State Pass Anti-Harassment Legislation

New York State

On April 12, 2018, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed into law the New York State Legislature's anti-sexual harassment legislation. The bill includes a number of requirements impacting private employers, including the implementation of mandatory sexual harassment training and policies.

Specifically, effective immediately, the law expands the anti-sexual harassment protections to certain nonemployees. Employers may now be liable for the sexual harassment of contractors, subcontractors, vendors, consultants, or any other person providing services in the workplace, if the employer, its agents, or supervisors knew or should have known that the nonemployee was subject to sexual harassment in the employer's workplace, and failed to take appropriate corrective action.

Further, effective July 11, 2018, the law prohibits the inclusion of nondisclosure provisions in settlement agreements for sexual harassment claims, unless that is the complainant's preference, the complainant is given a period of 21 days to consider whether to accept the nondisclosure provision and, after signing the agreement, the complainant has seven days to revoke such acceptance. Specifically, employers will not "have the authority" to include in a settlement agreement any terms or conditions that would "prevent the disclosure of the underlying facts and circumstances," for a claim involving sexual harassment. The new legislation also bans contractual provisions that mandate arbitration for any allegations of sexual harassment.

Finally, effective October 9, 2018, the law requires all employers to adopt a sexual harassment prevention policy to be distributed in writing to employees. The law spells out a number of items the policy must include, such as a standard complaint form, examples of prohibited conduct, and the procedure for the timely and confidential investigation of complaints.

The law also requires that employers conduct annual sexual harassment...