New legislation is an important stage towards curbing sexual harassment

Right up until this 7 days, extra than 1 million Texas workers had no safety at all less than the state’s anti-sexual harassment legislation, merely for the reason that they labored for businesses with less than 15 workforce.

On Sept. 1, that changed. Texas regulation barring sexual harassment now covers all businesses, no matter of their dimension. The new regulation is a important move toward curbing sexual harassment. Texas staff utilized by smaller businesses, including domestic personnel, are covered by sexual harassment law for the very first time. And the protections go over workers no matter of their immigration position, which is specially vital in our condition, the place a single in five personnel is an immigrant.

Elementary, commonsense adjustments expanded and strengthened the regulation governing sexual harassment. For illustration, the legislation now involves that employers take suitable, quick motion to cease sexual harassment that they know about—or must know about. Specific men and women, in addition to businesses, can now be held liable for sexual harassment. And the legislation codifies a definition of sexual harassment that reaches a much broader scope of unacceptable carry out than what could set off legal responsibility prior to. In addition, one more new law that took result Sept. 1 presents survivors of sexual harassment in Texas workplaces a lot more time to file a demand of discrimination with the Texas Workforce Commission Civil Legal rights Division. The regulation extends the deadline for filing sexual harassment issues with the agency from 180 days to 300 days—which usually means that personnel will now have 300 times from the day of the harassment to file their cost.