…and in recent sexual harassment news, lots!

Let’s get you caught up on all the news from the past few days.

Sunday.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman sued Harvey Weinstein in state court. The purpose of the lawsuit is to “hold accountable Harvey Weinstein,
his brother Robert Weinstein, and the company for which they served as co-owners, co-Chairmen of the Board, and co-Chief Executive Officers, The Weinstein
Company LLC and its parent holding company, The Weinstein Company Holdings LLC for repeated, persistent, and egregious violations of law, to vindicate the rights of TWC’s employees, and to prevent future recurrence of such misconduct.”

You might have heard about this lawsuit already and some of the scandalous facts. Here’s an article. Here’s another article. Or you could print out a copy of what was filed on Sunday and read it for yourself.

Monday.

The National Association of Attorneys General — like all of ’em — signed onto this letter in which they called upon Congress to ban compulsory arbitration of sexual harassment claims. Here’s the money shot from the letter, “Ending mandatory arbitration of sexual harassment claims would help to put a stop to the culture of silence that protects perpetrators at the cost of their victims.”

Tuesday.

Showtime!

Yesterday, I testified before Philadelphia City Council in support of pending legislation that would require the City of Philadelphia conduct annual sexual harassment training for employees and officers.

Here are my remarks and here is a press release from bill sponsor, Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown.

Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “Huh? The City doesn’t already require this training already?” Well, it does. Sort of. From the press release:

Currently, the City of Philadelphia, Office of Human Resources Sexual Harassment Policy states: It is the responsibility of each Appointing Authority to ensure that all supervisors receive the appropriate training to enforce this [Sexual Harassment] Policy.  Under the new bill: Mandatory annual training will be required for all exempt, non-exempt, civil service, City officers and employees regarding sexual harassment in the workplace. 

Philadelphia has had a rough go of it over the past decade. Fortunately, along with the pending legislation, the City has formed a task force to address this training issue. The end result should be better education and more protection for City workers.