As I continued my deep dive into all the new items of legislation, today will focus on an act that amends the law regarding training and statute of limitations for complaints .

Public Act 21-109 (Senate Bill No. 1023) makes some changes to the affirmative action law which I won’t cover here. But there are two other subtle changes:

First, employers will not be required to provide sexual harassment training to an employee who, within two years before being hired, received it while working for another employer.

BUT But But…. The bill is quite specific.  Only in-person or online training provided by the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities satisfies this requirement. If the new employee received the training in the prior two years from a prior HR department or even, say, a lawfirm, the employee must still be trained in the law by the new employer.

Why do employees who take the CHRO training get a pass but other employees do not?   That is a question without an answer.

In any event, this may also help workers who have multiple jobs; a “one-and-done” training will allow them to take a pass from training at another employer.

The bill also clarifies the time that claimants can file a complaint with the CHRO. Under current law, employees have 300 days to file employment claims, but other individuals have 180 days to file discrimination claims based on housing or public accommodations.  Now, for all types of discriminatory practice complaints, the bill allows such complaints to be filed within 300 days.

The law goes into effect October 1, 2021.