California Ethics Training: Who, Hours, and Deadlines

California’s ethics training requirements apply to every employer with five or more workers and require two hours of harassment prevention training for supervisors and one hour for everyone else, delivered within six months of hire and repeated every two years. The mandate comes from Government Code Section 12950.1 and 2 CCR Section 11024, both grounded in the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA).¹ Although it is often marketed as “ethics training,” the law targets a specific set of topics: sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation, and abusive conduct.

Which Employers Have to Train

The rule covers any employer with five or more workers. The count sweeps in full-time, part-time, temporary, and seasonal employees along with unpaid interns, unpaid volunteers, and people providing services under a contract.² Independent contractors count toward the threshold even though they are not traditional employees.

The five workers do not all have to be in California. An out-of-state employer with four remote workers elsewhere and one employee in California still has to train that California employee.² Only workers actually performing work in California need the training itself. The employer pays for the training, and employees cannot be made to complete it on unpaid personal time.³

Hours and Deadlines by Role

Supervisory employees need at least two hours. Non-supervisory employees need at least one hour. A supervisor, for this purpose, is anyone with authority to hire, fire, assign, transfer, or discipline another worker, or to effectively recommend any of those actions. Someone who can influence another worker’s terms of employment generally qualifies.

First-time deadlines break down this way:

New non-supervisory employees: within six months of hire.
New supervisors, including employees promoted into a supervisory role: within six months of taking on the role.
Seasonal and temporary workers hired for less than six months: within 30 calendar days of hire or 100 hours worked, whichever comes first.¹

After the first round, every employee has to be retrained every two years. The clock runs from each employee’s last compliant training, so a single company-wide training day will not keep everyone on schedule. Track completion dates individually.

Credit for Training at a Prior Employer

A new hire who completed compliant training within the past two years at a previous employer, a joint employer, or through a Labor Commissioner work permit does not have to retake it right away. The new employer must have that employee read and acknowledge the company’s anti-harassment policy within six months of hire, then put the employee on a two-year retraining cycle measured from the date of the earlier training.³ The current employer carries the burden of confirming that the earlier training actually met California’s requirements. If it did not, the credit does not apply.

What the Training Has to Cover

The curriculum has to address several overlapping topics, with practical examples rather than abstract legal doctrine. Required subject matter includes:

Federal and state prohibitions on sexual harassment, how to recognize it, how to report it, and the remedies available to victims.
Discrimination and retaliation under FEHA, including all protected classes, with guidance for supervisors on how to respond to complaints.
Abusive conduct, defined by the statute as workplace conduct carried out with malice that a reasonable person would find hostile, offensive, and unrelated to a legitimate business purpose.
Harassment based on gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation, with practical examples specific to those categories, delivered by trainers with knowledge in those areas.¹

Supervisor training additionally has to cover how to respond when an employee brings a harassment complaint, the employer’s obligation to investigate, and the essential components of an anti-harassment policy.²

How the Training Must Be Delivered

The statute calls for “effective interactive training.” A text document emailed to employees does not satisfy that standard.³ Acceptable formats include:

Classroom training delivered in person by a qualified trainer, conducted away from normal work duties.
Individualized, interactive e-learning created by a qualified trainer, with directions on how to reach the trainer, who must respond to questions within two business days. E-learning cannot be watched as a group.
Live webinars created and taught in real time by a qualified trainer.
Blended formats combining audio, video, or computer technology with any of the above.

Training can be completed individually or in a group and can be split into shorter segments as long as it adds up to the required hours.¹

Qualified trainers fall into three categories: attorneys with at least two years of employment law practice under FEHA or Title VII; HR professionals or harassment prevention consultants with at least two years of practical experience designing or conducting prevention training, handling complaints, investigating, or advising on prevention; and college or law school instructors with at least 20 instruction hours or two years of experience teaching employment law under FEHA or Title VII.⁴ A generic off-the-shelf module created by someone outside those categories may not count, even if its content looks right.

The California Civil Rights Department (CRD) offers free online courses that satisfy the requirements, available in Chinese, English, Korean, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.⁵ Employers with a significant portion of their workforce speaking another language should arrange third-party training in that language or provide translation support so the training is actually effective for those employees.

Records You Have to Keep

Training documentation must be kept for at least two years. The required records are:

Names of employees trained.
Date of training.
Sign-in sheets and certificates of attendance or completion.
Type of training (classroom, e-learning, or webinar).
Copies of all written or recorded training materials.
Name of the training provider.⁶

For e-learning, the trainer separately keeps a two-year record of every written question received from employees and every response given. These records prove compliance if the CRD comes knocking, and they become important evidence in any later harassment or discrimination lawsuit.

What Happens If You Skip the Training

There is no standalone fine for failing to train. The CRD can go to court to force a non-compliant employer to provide the training, which carries its own legal costs.¹ The larger exposure is in private lawsuits. FEHA puts every employer under an affirmative duty to take all reasonable steps necessary to prevent discrimination and harassment.⁷ Missing training records give a plaintiff’s attorney a direct way to argue the employer skipped a basic preventive measure, which can weaken the defense and push up compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorney’s fees.

1
California Legislative Information. California Government Code GOV 12950.1 – Training and Education Regarding Sexual Harassment
2
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. 2 CCR 11024 – Required Training and Education Regarding Harassment Based on Sex, Gender Identity, Gender Expression, and Sexual Orientation
3
California Civil Rights Department. Sexual Harassment Prevention Training – Information for Employers FAQ
4
Legal Information Institute. 2 CCR 11024 – Required Training and Education Regarding Harassment Based on Sex, Gender Identity, Gender Expression, and Sexual Orientation
5
California Civil Rights Department. Sexual Harassment Prevention Training
6
California Civil Rights Department. Changes to 2 CCR 11024 – Sexual Harassment Training and Education
7
California Legislative Information. California Government Code GOV 12940 – Unlawful Employment Practices