Does Texas now require sexual harassment prevention training for all employers?
The short answer: No.
The longer answer: If you’re an employer in Texas and you’re not already training your supervisors and other personnel on preventing and addressing sexual harassment, you may want to consider it.
Why? Effective September 1, 2021, Texas has new laws designed to prevent sexual harassment and strengthen protections for employees. If your supervisors, managers, and other officials don’t understand and deliver on their responsibilities when it comes to preventing and correcting harassment, both the organization/firm (as an entity) and individual personnel could be held liable.
While a detailed legal analysis is outside the scope of this article, here are a few key things to be aware of:
All employers in Texas—and their agents, supervisors, or managers—now have a heightened responsibility for addressing sexual harassment.
Once an employer (or its agents, supervisors, or managers)—“knows or should have known” that sexual harassment is occurring, they are required by the new Texas law to take “immediate and appropriate corrective action.”
All employers in Texas, regardless of size, can now be subject to potential liability for sexual harassment.
Individuals within the organization can be held liable, too—for engaging in harassment and/or for failing to take the required immediate and corrective action.
The takeaway
For employers in Texas, it is more important now than ever before that your personnel:
Understand the types of behaviors that can potentially be considered sexual harassment;
Refrain from such behavior; and
Know the actions they must take if they observe or become aware of such behavior.
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Important Notice: The content of this article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to serve as legal advice. You should not act or rely on information included above without first seeking the advice of an attorney.