The city of Chicago has amended its sexual harassment laws to require all employers to provide a written policy on sexual harassment to their employees, as well as annual training on anti-harassment and discrimination. In doing so, the city has also updated its definition of sexual harassment as well as related policies to reporting and penalties.
30-second take | 3-minute deeper dive | 3-second links
LOCATION: Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
EFFECTIVE: July 1, 2022
30-second take
- As of July 1, 2022, all Chicago-based employers must have a written policy on sexual harassment that is available in the employee's primary language and promoted via posters.
- Also as of July 1, all employers must provide annual training on anti-harassment and discrimination.
- The city of Chicago has enhanced its definition of sexual harassment to now explicitly include “sexual misconduct.”
- The city has also added safety measures for employees and increased the statute of limitations to report all forms of discrimination as well as penalties for such misconduct.
- LRN is updating its anti-harassment and discrimination course to reflect these changes and meet the duration mandates.
3-minute deeper dive
In April 2022, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the Commission on Human Relations amended the city's sexual harassment laws to make them stronger and to uphold zero tolerance of violence and harassment in the workplace. Part of these efforts included enhancing the city’s definition of “sexual harassment” to explicitly include reference to “sexual misconduct.” The new definition, which went into effect June 4, is:
“Sexual harassment” means any (i) unwelcome sexual advances or unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature; (ii) requests for sexual favors or conduct of a sexual nature when (1) submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual’s employment;, or (2) submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for any employment decision affecting the individual;, or (3) such conduct has the purpose or effect of substantially interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment; or (iii) sexual misconduct, which means any behavior of a sexual nature which also involves coercion, abuse of authority, or misuse of an individual’s employment position.
As of July 1, 2022, all Chicago-based employers must have a written policy on sexual harassment that includes, at minimum the following:
- A statement that sexual harassment is illegal in Chicago.
- The definition of sexual harassment as defined in Section 6-010-020
- A requirement that all employees participate in sexual harassment prevention training annually.
- Employees shall participate in a minimum of one hour of sexual harassment prevention training annually. Anyone who supervises or manages employees shall participate in a minimum of two hours of sexual harassment prevention training annually and all employees must participate in one hour of bystander training annually
- Examples of prohibited conduct that constitute sexual harassment
- Details on how an individual can report an allegation of sexual harassment, including instructions on how to make a confidential report (with an internal complaint form) to a manager, employer’s corporate headquarters, human resources department, or other internal reporting mechanism.
- Details on legal services—including governmental—that are available to employees who may be victims of sexual harassment.
- A statement that retaliation for reporting sexual harassment is illegal in Chicago.
The written policy must be available in the employee's primary language within the first calendar week of starting employment. Additionally, employers will be required to display a poster advising of the prohibition on sexual harassment where employees can see it.
Also beginning July 1, all employers must provide annual training on anti-harassment and discrimination. Companies have one year from this start date to provide the following:
- 1 hour of sexual harassment prevention training for all employees.
- 2 hours of sexual harassment prevention training for supervisors and managers.
- 1 hour of bystander training for all employees.
LRN is updating its anti-harassment and discrimination course to meet reflect these changes and meet the duration mandates, including an enhanced course profiler to help E&C professionals easily manage and deliver the right content to the right people.
In addition, the city of Chicago added safety measures allowing the Commission on Human Relations to expand the notification to the respondent (i.e. person alleged to have caused harm) timeline from 10 days to up to 30 days. This is intended to help mitigate any retaliation such as a denial of a reasonable accommodation request under the Illinois Victim's Economic and Security Act.
The city also increased the statute of limitations to report all forms of discrimination, including sexual harassment, from 300 days to 365 days. Penalties for all forms of discrimination have increased as well, from the previous $500 to $1,000 per violation, to $5,000 to $10,000 per violation.
3-second links
- Access LRN’s anti-harassment and discrimination course for free
- Why anti-harassment and discrimination training matters at work
- What is effective anti-harassment and discrimination training in the US?
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