I have been involved in a number of sexual harassment investigations and completely understand the importance of insuring that individuals within the workplace are protected against it. However, I don't feel another law, like the one California put into effect at the end of 2005 called AB1825. Companies have enough on their plates already without yet another law to make sure they don't violate.

One of the most difficult sexual harassment claims I ever handled happened in California when I was a Human Resources Director for a large hotel chain. Even though the incident happened long before AB1825 was enacted. It would not have changed anything that happened. I had already implemented a strong sexual harassment policy and conducted training with not only our supervisory staff, but also our regular employees.

I'll never forget the day that employee came into my office and blurted out that her supervisor had sexually harassed her! I almost didn't know how to react but what I was able to do was to ask her if she would like a female supervisor present while we discussed what had happened. I was very glad to hear her say yes to that question. Because it was a supervisor that she was accusing of sexually harassing her, the new AB1825 law would probably not made a difference since it is targeted at teaching supervisors what to try and prevent in the workplace.

Because she claimed her supervisor raped her it goes against the whole idea of AB1825 in that it targets supervisors knowing how to protect their employees against it. Or at least one phase of the training is directed at that. In this situation the supervisor who was supposed to guard against and or identify threats was the person who actually violated the law, if she was telling the truth. As the facts unraveled we discovered that she was not raped; however, there was no doubt about sexual harassment.

Getting at the truth anytime a charge of sexual harassment is made is a very important part of my job as Manager. As an example if we handle the charge incorrectly and charge someone with sexual harassment that didn't really do anything wrong they may lose their family over it. On the other hand if we take it too lightly and do nothing the emotional state of the person being violated could have an impact on them for the rest of their lives. Getting at the truth is critical and sometimes very difficult. The new law really does nothing to address that anymore than the other ones that are already on the books

There is no question about whether or not sexual harassment should be tolerated in the workplace or not, and of course it should not be! The question remains whether California needed to enact AB1825 to help with the problem. It is my opinion that more should be done to help supervisors get at the truth rather than being able to identify and/or prevent it from happening. As long as there are male and female's there will be some type of flirting; however, when it goes too far or not welcomed it must not be tolerated.