HR News

Updated Requirements for Anti-Discrimination and Harassment

Updated Requirements for Anti-Discrimination and Harassment

Significant changes to California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) become effective on April 1st. The updates include:

• Specific requirements for harassment and discrimination training including content to address “abusive conduct” and recordkeeping requirements for e-learning sessions and webinars;
• Updated definitions relating to gender expression, gender identity and transgender employees; and
• An employer’s affirmative duty to take reasonable steps to prevent and promptly correct discriminatory and harassing conduct.

One of the biggest changes to FEHA is the express requirement for employers to develop a written harassment, discrimination and retaliation prevention policy that must address eight specific topics including all protected categories covered by the Act, a compliant process that ensures confidentiality to the extent possible, impartial and timely investigations, a guarantee of no retaliation, and appropriate remedial actions and resolutions. The policy may be distributed to employees in print or via e-mail, and should include an acknowledgement return form. FEHA also requires that the policy be translated into any language that is spoken by at least 10% of an employer’s workforce.

You may have received notices from law offices or your payroll service warning you of the impending changes. If your Employee Handbook was prepared by Sierra HR Partners or Fishman, Larsen & Callister you can rest assured that we are on top of these updates and will be providing new policy language in a timely manner. (If your handbook has not been updated through 2016, please contact us so we can be sure it contains the most recent information.) If you have other questions about how the FEHA requirements may affect your business, please contact us.

Form I-9 Expiration Date

You may have noticed that your Form I-9 has an expiration date of March 31, 2016. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) has directed that employers continue to use the existing form until its proposed changes are approved by the Office of Management and Budget. Sierra HR Partners will keep you updated when a revised Form I-9 is released.

Sierra HR Partners can provide Anti-Harassment and Discrimination Prevention training for you employees. Our program, developed with lawyers, meets all AB 1825 requirements, including AB 2053’s amendment covering abusive conduct/bullying, in an interactive forum. Click here for more information, or give us a call to discuss booking a session.

Protecting Employee Data

Protecting Employee Data

As an employer, are you taking the necessary steps to keep your employee information confidential and secure? In today’s information age, data breaches are a too common occurrence and lead to a multitude of problems. The rise in identify theft has led to laws imposing restrictions on the use and disclosure of employee social security numbers, and company obligations for responding to security breaches of electronically stored information such as payroll records and personally identifiable information.

California civil code defines personal information as:

(A) An individual’s first name or first initial and his or her last name in combination with any one or more of the following data elements, when either the name or the data elements are not encrypted or redacted:

(i) Social security number.

(ii) Driver’s license number or California identification card number.

(iii) Account number, credit or debit card number, in combination with any required security code, access code, or password that would permit access to an individual’s financial account.

(iv) Medical information.

(v) Health insurance information.

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The law requires businesses to promptly notify affected individuals of a security breach in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay. The written notification should include at a minimum: 1) what happened, 2) information involved, 3) what action you are taking, and, 4) what the employee can do. You may contact your legal counsel or refer to the civil code for additional information.

A few recommended steps to safeguard employee data:

• Partner with your trusted IT provider

• Consult with legal counsel or Sierra HR Partners on best practices for collecting, storing and retaining employee data

• Restrict access to employee records

If one of your employees is a victim of identify theft, encourage him or her to file a police report, and to contact all creditors and reporting agencies.

DID YOU KNOW?

California’s Department of Fair Employment and Housing has a few amendments that impact employee notifications? One recent update is guidance on Transgender Rights in The Workplace. We will keep you apprised of additional updated notices as they are published.Click here for a full list of DFEH notices and brochures.

Dealing with Workplace Violence

What would you do if a client started to threaten one of your coworkers? Or if you were asked to terminate an employee who has a history of aggressive outbursts? Or if you were worried about an employee working alone late at night in a ‘bad’ part of town?

While there is no legal requirement to have a workplace violence prevention program, assessing the potential for workplace violence is an essential part of the requirement to “furnish employment and a place of employment that is safe and healthful for the employees therein” (Cal. Labor Code § 6400). Assessing your unique risks is also one of the best ways to prevent and, in worse cases, respond to, instances of workplace violence.
Cal/OSHA suggests that there are three main types of workplace violence:

• Type I: The perpetrator has no legitimate business relationship to the workplace and usually enters the affected workplace to commit a robbery or other crime. Businesses where employees have face-to-face contact with clients or customers, work late at night, or work alone are at a higher risk of this type of workplace violence.
• Type II: The perpetrator is the recipient of a service provided by the affected workplace or victim. The assailant could be a current or former client, patient, customer, or passenger. This type of violence often impacts health care or social service providers, teachers, sales personnel, or other professionals.
• Type III: The perpetrator has some employment-related involvement with the affected workplace. This type of violence is committed by a current or former employee or by an employee’s spouse or lover, relative, friend, or some other person who has a dispute with an employee. This type of workplace violence is far less common than Type I or Type II violence.

How you ultimately prevent workplace violence will depend on which risk factors you face, but one of the best practices employers can take is to establish a zero-tolerance policy towards workplace violence that covers not only employees, but clients, vendors, and any other visitors to your workplace. If you haven’t done so, your next step should be to conduct an initial assessment to identify factors that contribute to your risk for workplace violence, and make plans to mitigate those risks and respond to potential threats.
Sierra HR Partners is available to provide workplace violence prevention training. We can also assist you in assessing your risk of workplace violence and taking steps to mitigate it.

When Are My New Employees Officially On the Clock?

In an effort to make a new employee’s first day of work as productive as possible, many companies schedule an earlier date for New Hire Orientation (NHO) or onboarding activities such as completing tax forms, reviewing the employee handbook, and covering general training topics. However, problems arise when employers do not consider NHO to be work, and do not pay the new employee properly for the time.

You may be thinking, “The person hasn’t even started work yet. Why should we be expected to pay wages?”
The Fair Labor Standards Act states that when an individual is “suffered or permitted to work,” the time must be paid.

You may still be thinking, “How can filling out new-hire forms be considered ‘work’?”
The Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Orders define hours worked as “the time during which an employee is subject to the control of an employer.”

Therefore, if you instruct a new employee to be at your office for a certain amount of time to begin the NHO process, (s)he is effectively under your control, and is considered to have started work on that date, and entitled to reporting time pay. This activity triggers your responsibility to verify eligibility to work in the United States within three business days, and your responsibility to accurately track and pay for all hours worked.

To minimize confusion and potential compliance errors, we recommend dedicating a substantial portion of the new employee’s first workday to completing all steps of your NHO process. While the day may not result in measurable productivity, it presents an ideal opportunity to talk with the individual about your company’s history, mission and organizational structure, thoroughly review the job description and performance evaluation standards, make introductions to co-workers, cover general safety training, and other activities that will allow your employee to feel welcomed and confident in the new position. These onboarding practices will ensure that the hire date is correctly stated in your records, (s)he is paid correctly for all hours worked, and get the employment relationship started on the right foot.