Chicago Employers Face New Rules Regarding Sexual Harassment Policies and Training

(June 21, 2022) Chicago has enhanced its sexual harassment prevention laws to include sexual misconduct, doubled the time that employees must attend an annual training, revised requirements for  employer written policies, and increased penalties for violations by 10 times.

The City of Chicago Human Rights Ordinance prohibits sexual harassment in employment. A victim can be of the opposite or same sex. Prohibited actions include unwelcome sexual advances or requests for sexual favors when such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of employment or conduct that interferes with an individual’s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment. The harassment can include repeated, unwelcome sexually suggestive comments, gestures, emails, pictures, or unwelcomed physical contact of a sexual nature.

Under the revised Human Rights Ordinance, each employer must have a written policy on sexual harassment that:

• Includes a statement that sexual harassment is illegal in Chicago;
• Defines sexual harassment;
• Identifies that employees must complete annually one hour of sexual harassment prevention training and one hour of bystander training;
• Includes examples of prohibited conduct that constitute sexual harassment;
• Sets forth instructions on how to make a confidential internal report to a manager, the employer’s corporate headquarters, or HR department;
• Identifies legal services, including governmental, available to employees who may be victims of sexual harassment;
• Includes that retaliation for reporting sexual harassment is illegal in Chicago; and
• Is provided to each employee in an employee’s primary language within the first calendar week of the employee’s employment.

The Ordinance’s revision requires that all employees must receive annually one hour of sexual harassment prevention training (the State of Illinois training would count) and one hour of bystander training. Managers/supervisors must receive two hours of annual training on sexual harassment prevention.

In addition, the employer must:

• Display posters designed by City of Chicago’s Commission on Human Relations in English and Spanish (at least one each) about sexual harassment prohibitions.
• Retain records of training, policies, and anything else to show compliance for at least five years.

Penalties for violations of the Ordinance increased to $5,000 to $10,000 per violation, up from $500 to $1,000.

Additional information and copies of sample written policies and required posters are available at the City of Chicago Human Relations website here: https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/cchr/supp_info/sexual-harassment.html