We are on the countdown until the start of mandatory sexual harassment trainings in NYS.

Just 33 days until the October 9 start date. Remember, all employees must be trained before 1/1/2019.

Lieb Compliance is offering onsite, on-demand web-based interactive videos and/or live trainings at our training center at 308 W. Main Street, Smithtown New York.

All trainings will be instructed by employment law litigators so that our content is immersive with real world examples.

Facts: Li Yan's coworker Ralph has just been through a divorce. He drops comments on a few occasions that he is lonely and needs to find a new girlfriend. Li Yan and Ralph have been friendly in the past and have had lunch together in local restaurants on many occasions. Ralph asks Li Yan to go on a date with him—dinner and a movie. Li Yan likes Ralph and agrees to go out with him. She enjoys her date with Ralph but decides that a relationship is not a good idea. She thanks Ralph for a nice time, but explains that she does not want to have a relationship with him. Ralph waits two weeks and then starts pressuring Li Yan for more dates. She refuses, but Ralph does not stop. He keeps asking her to go out with him.

Question: Li Yan cannot complain of sexual harassment because she went on a date with Ralph.True or False?

FALSE: Being friendly, going on a date, or even having a prior relationship with a coworker does not mean that a coworker has a right to behave as Ralph did toward Li Yan. She has to continue working with Ralph, and he must respect her wishes and not engage in behavior that has now become inappropriate for the workplace.

Facts: Li Yan's coworker Ralph has just been through a divorce. He drops comments on a few occasions that he is lonely and needs to find a new girlfriend. Li Yan and Ralph have been friendly in the past and have had lunch together in local restaurants on many occasions. Ralph asks Li Yan to go on a date with him—dinner and a movie. Li Yan likes Ralph and agrees to go out with him. She enjoys her date with Ralph but decides that a relationship is not a good idea. She thanks Ralph for a nice time, but explains that she does not want to have a relationship with him. Ralph waits two weeks and then starts pressuring Li Yan for more dates. She refuses, but Ralph does not stop. He keeps asking her to go out with him.


Question: When Ralph first asked Li Yan for a date, this was sexual harassment. True or False?

FALSE: Ralph's initial comments about looking for a girlfriend and asking Li Yan, a coworker, for a date are not sexual harassment. Even if Li Yan had turned Ralph down for the first date, Ralph had done nothing wrong by asking for a date and by making occasional comments that are not sexually explicit about his personal life.

Every employer in New York State is required to provide employees with sexual harassment prevention training pursuant to Section 201-g of the Labor Law.

The Burden - All employees MUST complete the training before January 1, 2019. This training must be:

• Interactive with participation 
• Accommodate questions 
• Answer questions
• Enable employee feedback on the training and materials

Great news, Lieb School, already has a course that is approved for continuing education credits in the real estate brokerage industry -  Sexual Harassment & Brokerage. 

Local Law 2017-147, which addresses Administrative Code Sections 17-502, 506.1, 508, and 513.2, requires all condos, co-ops and rentals in NYC to have smoking policies as of today. 

These policies must be included in the deed, the lease, the bylaws or rules, posted prominently and noticed annually. 

There are no rules of what the policies must be, but instead just that they must exist.
The purpose of these laws is to empower individuals to make informed decisions about where to live. 

Landlords - avoid civil monetary penalties by getting compliant immediately.