NY: Harassment Legislation Update
While the deadline for harassment training and policy updates is October 9, 2018, certain New York employers should be aware that the deadline to update form agreements to comply with the new harassment regulations is July 11, 2018.
According to Holland & Knight, the legislation includes a section that “prohibits employers from requiring non-discolure provisions to settle sexual harassment claims, unless:
- confidentiality is the complainant’s preference, as memorialized in the agreement;
- the complainant has 21 days to consider any nondisclosure term; and
- the complainant has seven days after signing the agreement in which to revoke the agreement.
It should be noted that this does not prohibit “confidentiality clauses concerning the terms of the agreement”, such as the amount of money paid to settle claims.
Employers should review agreements with legal counsel to ensure they are in compliance, including the removal of mandatory arbitration clauses “that would bypass judicial resolution for allegations of unlawful sexual harassment by requiring such claims to be heard in arbitration”.
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The information included in this blog post originally appeared in an article in JD Supra on July 2, 2018, written by Katherine Marques of Holland & Knight LLP.
