SB 396: Employment: gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation.

The California Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) makes specified employment practices unlawful, including the harassment of an employee directly by the employer or indirectly by agents of the employer with the employers knowledge. FEHA requires employers with 50 or more employees to provide at least 2 hours of prescribed training and education regarding sexual harassment to all supervisory employees within 6 months of their assumption of a supervisory position and once every 2 years, as specified.

This bill would additionally require employers with 50 or more employees to include, as a component of that prescribed training and education for supervisors, training inclusive of harassment based on gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation.

FEHA requires each employer to post a poster on discrimination in employment, which includes information relating to the illegality of sexual harassment, in a prominent and accessible location in the workplace.

The bill would also require each employer to post a poster developed by the Department of Fair Employment and Housing regarding transgender rights in a prominent and accessible location in the workplace.

The California Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act makes programs and services available to individuals with employment barriers and creates a board, composed of the Governor and Governor-appointed members who represent specified interests, including representatives of the state workforce, to carry out specified functions in furtherance of that act.

This bill would expand the definition of an individual with employment barriers to include transgender and gender nonconforming individuals. The bill also would authorize the appointments to the board representing the state workforce to include representatives of community-based organizations that serve transgender and gender nonconforming individuals.

This bill would incorporate additional changes to Section 14012 of the Unemployment Insurance Code proposed by AB 957 to be operative only if this bill and AB 957 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.