Compliance Guidelines Released for New Employee Training Mandate

February 21, 2020

The Illinois Department of Human Rights (IDHR) has released the training standards for Illinois’ new law (Public Act 101-0221) that requires employers to provide sexual harassment prevention training to their employees each year, effective Jan. 1, 2020.

The training standards are included in Section 2-109(B) and/or Section 2-110(C) of the Illinois Human Rights Act (IHRA), and an overview is included in an IDHR resource titled Minimum Sexual Harassment Prevention Training Standards for all Employers.

The new law also requires IDHR to produce a “model training program” for the prevention of sexual harassment, which will become available to the general public at no cost.

Employers may use this free model training program for their employees.

If employers would prefer to develop their own sexual harassment prevention training program, it must equal or exceed IHRA’s training standards.

Illinois employers have until Dec. 31, 2020, to comply with the requirement.

To assist Illinois employers with compliance, IDHR launched an informational webpage and offers an FAQ for Sexual Harassment Prevention Training.

According to the FAQ webpage, IDHR's model sexual harassment prevention training will be available in February 2020.

Restaurants and bars must establish and disseminate a written policy on sexual harassment prevention training to their employees and provide "supplemental" sexual harassment prevention training.

If you have questions, please contact our advocacy team at 800-782-4767 ext. 1470, or by email.