The Human Rights Law protects victims of harassment, including sexual harassment, in important ways such as ensuring that harassment does not need to be severe or pervasive to be against the law.
Employers must adopt a sexual harassment prevention policy and training, or use a similar policy and training, that meet or exceeds the law’s minimum standards.
The training requirement is annual. Employees must receive training every year. New hires must be trained within 30 days of their start date.
Many libraries have access to free online training through their insurance carrier.
The library director or person responsible for retaining library records should file all Certification Forms in a file labeled Sexual Harassment Prevention Training for permanent record.
For more information, go to: https://www.ny.gov/programs/combating-sexual-harassment-workplace
Model Sexual Harassment Prevention Policy - provided by New York State, 2023
The policy must:
3 Simple Steps to Certification
Step #1: Have participants view the NYS Sexual Harassment Prevention Video found online.
Link to Training Video: https://youtu.be/A9gudpiQ40M
Link to Answer Sheet: https://www.ny.gov/sites/default/files/2023-04/Sexual_Harassment_Prevention_Training_Answer_Sheet.pdf
Time: 54-minutes
Step #2: Provide opportunity for questions about the material.
Step #3: Provide participants with the Certification and Follow-up Training Questions Form. ( see below).
This form should be used to offer participants the opportunity to ask additional questions about how the library addresses sexual harassment. The person proctoring the participant’s training can answer questions verbally if they are authorized, or the participant can ask questions in writing using the back of the form and the library director or board will have to answer in timely manner, verbally or in writing.