Lieb Compliance has solved your immediate need to protect your company against the new NYS Workplace Harassment Standard - see below.
Alert: Workplace harassment / discrimination standard reduced to permit claims for acts only rising above "petty slights" or "trivial inconveniences."
Act Now: You must act swiftly to advise your teams that absolutely no conversations, pictures or actions will be allowed that are related to anyone's demographics (age, race, creed, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, military status, sex, disability, predisposing genetic characteristics, familial status, marital status, domestic violence victim status, and religion)
To Do: Send this email to your team NOW!
"To Our Team:
As you are aware, this company firmly believes that discrimination and harassment is contrary to the values we promote in the workplace and is detrimental to our success as a company. With the passing of new laws in New York State strengthening anti-discrimination and anti-harassment protections, we are taking this opportunity to reiterate our zero tolerance policy to harassment and discrimination in the workplace. Any acts or comments that you may think are trivial inconveniences or petty slights, but may be perceived by an employee to be based on or related to his or her demographics (i.e., age, race, creed, color, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, military status, sex, disability, predisposing genetic characteristics, familial status, marital status, domestic violence victim status, and religion) will not be tolerated.
You are our "first line of defense" and must take proactive roles in ensuring that our work environment remains free of discrimination and harassment. If you think an employee may perceive a comment or act - even if it is isolated - to be related to his or her demographics, you should refrain from making such comment or taking such action. In addition, if you witness such conduct or are informed that such conduct occurred, you should immediately report the conduct to your boss, manager, HR team or business owner. Upon receiving your report, an investigation will be conducted promptly and any and all corrective action will ensue.
We are currently in the process of updating our formal policies and workplace discrimination trainings in light of the new law and we anticipate circulating such policies and conducting updated training for all employees in the near future. If you have any questions related to our anti-discrimination or anti-harassment policy you are encouraged to contact your boss or HR. Thank you for your continued partnership in keeping our workplace void of discrimination and harassment.
Again, we need you to keep our workplace free from harassment and discrimination."
Note: This is sample language meant to be a general notice to be distributed to employees in the workplace and is not intended to address any specific situations in the workplace. Any such situations or questions should be directed to employment counsel.
Visit discriminationpreventiontraining.com to keep your company safe from discrimination claims while maintaining a safe workplace for all.
