Beginning in January, all Illinois employers will have to start providing sexual harassment training for their employees.
It’s part of a new law called the Workplace Transparency Act. Every employer of any size, whether public or private, will now have to provide training based on a model the state’s Department of Human Rights will come up with. That department will offer a training course for free, or employers can opt to buy courses from a private company.
Andrew Rawson is with Traliant, which is one of those companies. He says the new training requirement should help workers understand the consequences of sexual harassment.
“It’s not a knowledge deficit. It’s not like, ‘Ah gee! If I had only known, I wouldn’t have done that.’ That’s the not the problem. The problem is people knowing that they shouldn’t do things and doing them anyway,” said Rawson.
Companies will have until the end of next year to provide harassment training.
The new law is also designed to curb the use of non-disclosure agreements; they’re often used as a means of keeping employees quiet about illegal behavior. – Sam Dunklau, NPR Illinois
Follow Sam Dunklau on Twitter: @SamDunklau
