The New York City Commission on Human Rights (the “Commission”) has issued a mandatory notice posting and information sheet for distribution to employees pursuant to the recently enacted Stop Sexual Harassment in NYC Act (the “Act”).

As we have previously reported, the Act, which was signed into law by Mayor Bill de Blasio on May 9, 2018, includes several significant mandates aimed at addressing sexual harassment in the workplace.  These include:

• effective April 1, 2019, requiring employers with 15 or more employees to conduct annual anti-sexual harassment training for all employees;
• extending the statute of limitations for filing complaints of gender-based harassment with the Commission from one year to three years after the conduct occurs; and
• mandating the display of an anti-sexual harassment rights and responsibilities posting notice and distribution of an information sheet on sexual harassment to employees.

To that end, the Commission has just released the required posting notice (English), which all New York City employers will be required to “conspicuously display . . . in employee breakrooms or other common areas employees gather.”  The poster must also be displayed by all employers in Spanish.   The notice is required to be sized at a minimum of 8.5 x 14 inches with a minimum 12 point font.  The posting notice must be displayed by no later than September 6, 2018.

Additionally, the Commission has released an informational fact sheet, which all New York City employers will be required to distribute to employees at the time of hire.  The information sheet may either be disseminated to new employees as a separate document or incorporated into an employee handbook.  Similar to the posting requirement, employers must begin disseminating the information sheet by no later than September 6, 2018.

The posting notice and information sheet are both included on a new page on the Commission’s website dedicated to the Act.  The page currently includes information about the Commission’s complaint process as well as contact information for the federal EEOC and New York State Division of Human Rights, guidance and resources regarding bystander intervention, examples of scenarios that may constitute discrimination, and information on the prohibition against retaliation.

With regard to the mandatory training requirement going into effect in April of next year, the Commission is expected to develop publicly available online sexual harassment training modules for employers’ use.  However, these modules have not yet been released.

We will continue to monitor new developments regarding the Act, as well as other harassment-related legislation both in New York and across the country.