(PHILADELPHIA) May 8, 2018 – In March 2018, City Council approved Councilwoman Reynolds Brown’s ballot referendum to amend the City Charter to mandate that all city officers and employees undergo sexual harassment training at least once every three years.
Voters will have the opportunity to approve a City Charter change to mandate sexual harassment prevention training on the May primary ballot a week from today: Tuesday, May 15th.
Ballot Question #3 will read:
“Shall the Philadelphia Home Rule Charter be amended to provide for mandatory annual training for all City officers and employees regarding sexual harassment in the workplace?”
“Sexual harassment in the workplace is a widespread, intergenerational and complex epidemic. Enforcing mandatory training is a concrete step in the right direction towards working against it. While we cannot cure the societal issues surrounding sexual harassment with this training alone, we will work to spread awareness of what constitutes sexual harassment and how co-workers and employees can identify and address it when experiencing it or as a bystander.”
The training is intended to educate employees on civility and appropriate behaviors towards co-workers, making certain to stress not only not how to act, but how to conduct oneself in the workplace. Studies indicate that more women report incidents of sexual harassment when sexual harassment is clearly defined.
“Everyone deserves to work in an environment that works against gender stereotypes, empowers bystanders, encourages civility, takes training seriously, promotes women, has a clear reporting process, and implements proportional consequences for negative behaviors and offenses. No one should live in fear of being sexually harassed when they walk into work every day. Let’s make certain that no one does.”
For additional information, please contact Public Affairs Manager Samantha Pearson at [email protected].
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