Rojgar Job News

The 2018 session of the General Assembly started last week and increasing workplace training is a top priority for passage. Indeed, it is not surprising that we’re starting to see the first proposed legislation to address the number of harassment claims that have been making headlines the last six months. Governor’s Bill 5043 sets up the following changes: First, it would increase the number of employers that need to provide anti-harassment training — resetting the number of employees needed to fall under the statute from 50 to 15. Second, the bill would also require  all employees (not just supervisors and managers) to undergo two hours of what it calls “awareness and anti-harassment compliance training” and have that training updated every five years. The training that now is just focused on sexual harassment prevention in the workplace, but would also be expanded to include all types of harassment—including that based on race, color, religiou...

First off, let me dispense with the elephant in the room — Yes, the show “Survivor” is still on the air and yes, I haven’t missed any of the 39 seasons of it. In fact, I shared lessons that employers could learn from Survivor way back in 2010. Last week’s episode of Survivor, however, brought far more reality than most would think a “reality show” could or should bring. There’s a lot of nuance to the episode that a short blog post can’t get into (though this podcast by Rob Cesterino gives it a try), but the show’s episode revolved around legitimate sexual harassment claims, using harassment claims for nefarious purposes, and bystander syndrome. And it was ugly. Really ugly. Why?  Here are a few things that stood out to me from an employment perspective: First, a female player (Kellee) complained to a producer that another male player (Dan) was a little too “touchy” and made her feel uncomfortable. To be sure, t...

On 25 September, we were joined at our London office by clients and contacts for a discussion on sexual harassment in the workplace, in particular the proposals set out by the UK government in its consultation document. The event was a great success and we are grateful to our panel of high profile speakers for sharing their experiences and insights on this topic. As well as sharing views on the government’s proposals, we also discussed the practical steps that companies could be taking now to prevent and respond effectively to sexual harassment in the workplace. Suggestions included: Policies and procedures – yes, we all know that employers should have guidance in place so that employees are clear about the standards of behaviour expected of them in the workplace. There should also be clear policies in place so that staff know what to do if they have been sexually harassed at work. But when was the last time you reviewed and updated these policies and/or reminded your staff...