On June 28, Kristin Klein Wheaton and Debra L. Doby — partners in Goldberg Segalla’s Employment and Labor and Workers’ Compensation Practice Groups — represented the firm at a Buffalo Niagara Partnership (BNP) presentation on employment-related risks to businesses. They discussed evolving laws and requirements that “businesses need to be aware of and comply with in order to protect themselves from liability and unwanted litigation,” and followed up with a post on BNP’s The Partnership blog.

“With the ever-changing employment laws and landscapes, there are constantly new changes and requirements that affect the business’ bottom line,” Kristin wrote.

Kristin and Debra covered many topics pertaining to workplace liability, including the new sexual harassment legislation in New York State. Effective October 9, 2018, this legislation requires employers to provide employees “annual interactive training on sexual harassment.” This legislation also requires companies to have a written sexual harassment policy.

Kristin and Debra offered advice on how to prepare for the new legislation. Key recommendations included:

• Reviewing current written sexual harassment policies to ensure that these meets the requirements of the new statute
• Planning to implement annual training in advance of the October 2018 deadline
• Including other harassment and discrimination training into the annual sexual harassment training
• Developing a plan of informing non-employees of the company’s sexual harassment policy, as well as how that policy will be disseminated

The event is the first of a two part series — the second part is to take place in October.

 Read more about the presentation:

• “Business Busters — Protecting Your Business from Employment Risks,” The Partnership, July 9, 2018