The state rolled out a new website for the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities during this pandemic. As someone who navigated the old site for years, I’m not yet a fan.
One reason? It’s hard to find news and some helpful items are buried.
For example, the CHRO now automatically lists the “Most Popular” pages up top — but that list is meaningless. For example, one of the pages contains outdated training materials from a 2011 law on case processing. Another page links just to the Office of Policy and Management.
Why am I bringing this up during the pandemic? Well, we are less than 60 days from October 1, 2020 deadline for employers to complete sexual harassment prevention training for employees.
But it’s not exactly easy to find on the CHRO website. The training landing page doesn’t specify the deadline either — or that an extension of time is available.
Instead, on Monday, the CHRO put up a quick update on its Facebook page that noted that it was actually still allowing extensions of time for the next few weeks.
Here’s the update:
Pursuant to Executive Order 7DDD, employers needing a 90-day extension of the October 1st Sexual Harassment Prevention Training deadline must request one from the Commission by September 9, 2020 for reasons relating specifically to the Covid-19 pandemic. Requests received after that date may not be granted. Requests can be submitted to CHRO.Questions@ct.gov.
To be fair, the CHRO website itself has two other pages on the training requirements. One has this updated information but another one on the CHRO website doesn’t. Ugh.
To the CHRO’s credit, it does appear that some lobbying took place to try to get the statute clarified during the special session (according to minutes of the July 8, 2020 CHRO Meeting) but with limited bills being brought up, employers are stuck with what we have now.
For employers, time is ticking on completing the training or asking for an extension of time.
And for the CHRO – is tweaking the website in the cards? Asking for a friend.