The California Fair Employment and Housing Commission's regulations implementing AB 1825 (mandatory sexual harassment training) failed to gain approval from California's Office of Administrative Law. The FEHC made the announcement here.
The OAL's chief concern was that the regulations were not sufficiently "clear" in certain respects, particularly regarding who is qualified to prepare and conduct anti-harassment training under the statute. There were also some more technical flaws.
The FEHC plans to modify the regulations and publish them for a brief public comment period
before re-submitting them to the OAL. The FEHC's modifications may have a significant effect on existing programs, depending on whether the new standards "raise the bar" on who is qualified to prepare or conduct AB 1825 training.
Once the regulations are re-issued, employers should reevaluate whether their trainers and training programs meet the new standards.
DGV