New York’s Translation of Anti-Harassment Materials Triggers Duties for Certain Employers

The New York Governor’s office has published on its website translations in seven languages of documents related to recent anti-harassment legislation. Now that the State has published translations in these seven languages, employers with employees whose primary language is among those languages, and who use policies and materials which deviate from the State’s models, should have those materials translated into the required language(s).

The following documents, previously published in English, are now available in Chinese, Haitian Creole, Korean, Italian, Polish, Russian and Spanish:

• A sample complaint form;
• Guidelines on minimum standards for sexual harassment prevention training;
• Guidelines on minimum standards for sexual harassment prevention policies;
• A model sex harassment prevention policy;
• A model poster advising those in the workplace of the employer’s policy against harassment;
• Sex harassment prevention toolkits for employers and employees;
• Frequently asked questions; and
• Model sex harassment prevention training materials, including a script and case studies.

As summarized in our prior alert, employers may use their English-language policies with a multilingual work force only to the extent that the State has not made a translation in a given language available. Employers with workers whose primary language is one of those seven should ensure that their policies are accurately translated into the workers’ native language.