How to Comply with Your 1st Annual NYS-Mandated Sexual & Other Harassment Prevention Training After Oct. 9th in Business and at Work

The deadline has passed (last Wednesday, October 9, 2019) for NYS employers with 1 or more employees to conduct their first annual NYS-Mandated Sexual and Other Harassment Prevention training.

However, the deadline of October 9th was Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Any employee or employer who decided to wait until the deadline to conduct the first annual training yet observed the holiday last Wednesday had 1 less day to meet the NYS-mandated training deadline.

At the request of a client, I reached out to the State of New York with this question:

If an employer misses the deadline, what are the ramifications and guidance? Should they conduct the training “as soon as possible” after the 9^th?  I suspect that this is permissible for individual employees who for whatever reason were not able to attend the employer’s first training with their colleagues.

If an employer conducts the training shortly after the Oct. 9^th deadline, will there be any penalties involved for delivering their first annual training shortly past the Oct. 9^th deadline? I always provide signed and dated training acknowledgments at the harassment prevention training that I deliver to provide a clear audit trail for compliance.

Below is their answer:

The Division of Labor Standards has not been given any guidelines regarding enforcement of Sec. 201-g (Prevention of Sexual Harassment). Therefore, any enforcement efforts at this time will be held in abeyance.

Your client should complete the training as soon as possible after the holidays and document it.

In other words: employers with 1 employee or more should complete the NYS-Mandated Annual Sexual and Other Harassment Prevention Training as soon as possible after the October 9, 2019 deadline (using signed training acknowledgments), in business and at work.