Anti-Bullying Training Required in California

On September 9, 2014, Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. signed into law Assembly Bill 2053 amending California Government Code § 12950.1. Subdivision (b) requires an employer, as defined, to include prevention of abusive conduct , as defined, as a component of the training and education required in Subdivision (a) of Government Code § 12950.1.

For purposes of Section 12950.1, “employer” means “any person regularly employing 50 or more persons or regularly receiving the services of 50 or more persons providing services pursuant to a contract, or any person acting as an agent of an employer, directly or indirectly, the state, or any political or civil subdivision of the state, and cities” (Cal. Gov. Code § 12950.1(g)(1)) and “abusive conduct” means “conduct of an employer or employee in the workplace, with malice, that a reasonable person would find hostile, offensive, and unrelated to an employer’s legitimate business interests. Abusive conduct may include repeated infliction of verbal abuse, such as the use of derogatory remarks, insults, and epithets, verbal or physical conduct that a reasonable person would find threatening, intimidating, or humiliating, or the gratuitous sabotage or undermining of a person’s work performance. A single act shall not constitute abusive conduct, unless especially severe and egregious” (Cal. Gov. Code § 12950.1(g)(2)).

Additional Source: California Legislative Information, A.B. 2053 (2014)