New York Employers: NYS is proposing changes to its model sexual harassment prevention policy. Proposed revisions include:
- independent contractors, gig and temporary workers are specifically identified as individuals that are covered under the policy;
- employers must provide employees with a copy of their sexual harassment prevention policy in person or “digitally through email” upon hiring; for employers or offices that operate remotely, the policy must be distributed to employees via email and also be made available on the employer’s “shared network”; and
- the definition of sexual harassment will be expanded to specifically include gender stereotyping and treating employees differently because of their gender; the proposed policy also includes an explanation of the nuances of the gender spectrum.
Be on the lookout for further developments regarding these proposed changes, as they may need to update their anti-harassment policies once the new model policy is finalized.
See the proposed model policy here: SexualHarassmentModelPolicy2022Proposed.pdf