Employers who maintain business facilities within the geographic boundaries of the City of Chicago and/or who are subject to one or more of the City’s license requirements should be aware of recent amendments to the sexual harassment aspects of the Chicago Human Rights Ordinance, which amendments take effect on July 1, 2022.

Previously, the Ordinance defined sexual harassment to include unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors or conduct of a sexual nature as a condition of an individual’s employment, or employment decisions based on an employee’s submission or rejection of such conduct. The amendments broaden that definition to include unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature, as well as sexual misconduct, which is defined as “any behavior of a sexual nature which also involves coercion, abuse of authority, or misuse of an individual’s employment position.”

The amended Ordinance also requires all employers to have a written policy document prohibiting sexual harassment. In this regard, employers are required to create one policy document in English and another in Spanish, and must display these documents in at least one location where employees commonly gather. For employees whose primary language is other than English or Spanish, an employer must provide the employee with a written policy in those employees’ primary language within the first calendar week of the employees’ employment.

The employers’ written policy document must include (1) a notification to...

Read Full Story: https://www.natlawreview.com/article/chicago-city-council-expands-sexual-hara...