California mandates supervisor training

California has a new law requiring all firms with 50 or more employees to give mandatory sexual harassment training to all “supervisory employees.”  Training is to be done by January 1, 2006, and must be repeated every two years thereafter.

There are minimal penalties for violation but, as Richard J. Frey of McDermott Will & Emery reports in a client advisory, plaintiffs’ lawyers will almost certainly zero in on compliance as part of their cases, so it will be a good idea for employers to comply.    One difficulty with the new law is that it neither defines who counts as a “supervisory employee” nor specifies what kind of training is sufficient.