Two major new changes to the Fair Employment and Housing act are set to go into effect next year, thanks to laws signed by Gov. Jerry Brown.
Is your city prepared?
The firm of Burke, Williams & Sorensen has an analysis of both of the new regulations:
“The first, AB 2053, requires that employers include a discussion of "abusive conduct" during mandatory harassment prevention training with employees.
AB 2053 amends the FEHA training requirements to include “prevention of abusive conduct” as a component of the mandatory sexual harassment prevention training that must be provided to supervisory employees every two years (and within six months of initial appointment to a supervisory position).
The second, AB 1443, expanded the applicability of the FEHA by including unpaid interns and volunteers in the scope of protection against harassment and certain forms of discrimination.
This extends its protections to unpaid interns and volunteers. Two published court of appeal decisions had previously addressed the questions of whether the FEHA applied to volunteers. In the most recent of the two decisions, Estrada v. City of Los Angeles (2013) 218 Cal.App.4th 143, the court ruled that despite receiving coverage under the City’s workers’ compensation policy, a volunteer police reserve officer was not protected by the FEHA and as a result, could not state a FEHA disability discrimination claim.”
You can read the full analysis on the firm’s Web site.