Abusive Conduct Under California Law: Definition, Workplace Examples, and Employer Obligations

Abusive conduct in California workplaces includes bullying, hostile language, and exclusion that disrupts an employee’s job performance. Employers must provide harassment prevention training and meet legal obligations under FEHA and Senate Bill No. 778.

By Brad Nakase, Attorney

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. What qualifies as abusive conduct under California Law?

3. The definition of abusive conduct under California Law

4. Hostile work environment

5. In what way does “conduct that someone with common sense would find offensive, hostile, and unconnected to the employer’s legitimate company interests” fall under this category?

6. The Most Recent California Compliance Requirements

7. Which Agencies Uphold Employment Laws in California?

8. California Requires Training on Sexual Harassment Prevention

Introduction

Harassment, abuse, and discrimination in the workplace are inappropriate and illegal according to the labor law in California. State and federal regulations in the United States protect workers from being subjected to excessive discomfort due to inappropriate, unpleasant, embarrassing, and targeted abusive acts by supervisors, employers, coworkers, and even clients on the company’s property.

Employers can avoid incurring unaffordable legal and human resource expenses by keeping abreast of compliance standards. An employer runs a very high danger of creating a difficult workplace that will eventually become a legal issue if they do not put the time and effort into preventing abusive conduct or harassment among their employees.

Use this guide to understand abusive conduct as defined by California law. In the jurisdiction of California, we will assist you in filtering through the clutter to comprehend its significance.

Continue reading to find out more about:

How California’s Fair Employment & Housing Act defines and addresses abusive behavior in the workplace
The latest mandatory training necessities for firms in California

What qualifies as abusive conduct under California Law?

It is hard to identify abusive conduct at work since the idea of it is not clearly explained. Therefore, how can a worker figure out whether their workplace situation is actually against California employment law?

The definition of abusive conduct under California Law

According to the latest Senate Bill No. 778 in California, abusive conduct is when someone in the place of work acts desperately or maliciously, and any fair person would find their actions harsh, rude, or unrelated to the owner’s objectives.

Abusive conduct under California law includes insulting people regularly, using insensitive remarks and swear words, showing behaviors someone with common sense might see as threatening or demeaning, and intentionally hurting one’s job achievements. Before an act is known as abusive conduct, it must be very shocking and serious.

In essence, “abusive conduct” in an office setting refers to bullying that occurs frequently enough to start upsetting any number of staff members to the point where it interferes with their ability to do their job or jobs. Conflicts between people or differences of opinion do not always amount to abusive conduct under California law if there is no widespread hostile, inappropriate, threatening, or discriminating purpose or behavior.

Hostile work environment

Harassment, such as abusive actions, has the ability to create a hostile work environment, something declared illegal in the law of workplace discrimination at the federal and state levels.

Both conditions have to be met for a workplace to be deemed a hostile environment due to abuse.

The behavior targets a victim based on one or more “protected class” characteristics, including marital status, gender, sexual orientation, or race.
There is “pervasive or severe” bullying and harassment.

The aforementioned requirements do have a few exceptions, though. If the victim is sexually harassed or faces a real threat to his or her personal safety (including sexual and physical assault), the inappropriate behavior does not have to be discriminating in a targeted manner.

In what way does “conduct that someone with common sense would find offensive, hostile, and unconnected to the employer’s legitimate company interests” fall under this category?

Cases of abusive behavior and other illegal harassment are evaluated using the “reasonable individual standard.” When a worker reports harassment to HR, the company assigns an internal or external assessor to look into the allegation. In an attempt to maintain objectivity, this evaluator just needs to picture the situation from the viewpoint of a “typical” person who may encounter the circumstances the victim recounted. The “reasonable person” cannot be someone who overreacts or fails to react to situations in society, and their interpretations and perceptions of them are supposed to reflect what is “normal” in the given setting.

However, taking into account the victim’s “protected status”—the grounds for the abuse—is not excluded by the “reasonable individual” heuristic. For instance, the evaluator should take into account the experience of a worker of LGBTQ orientation, whose abusive encounter may be exacerbated by numerous other negative experiences of the same kind, if the worker reports being picked out for homophobic harassment.

A “reasonable” individual would not tolerate the following additional instances of abuse or malice at work, among others:

Frequent use of disparaging language, such as when a male coworker calls a female employee “sweetie” or “honey” (in fact, words that would be deemed “terms of affection” in private relationships can be lawfully classified as “verbal harassment” in the workplace).
Jokes that make fun of someone’s national origins, gender, sexual preferences, religion, etc. on a regular or frequent basis.
“Messing” with a worker’s personal belongings or equipment without permission
Unauthorized or uninvited physical contact
Purposefully keeping a certain employee away from regular work activities

The Most Recent California Compliance Requirements

Employers in California must abide by both (state & federal) rules to prevent harassment and discrimination in the workplace.

Which Agencies Uphold Employment Laws in California?

1. Federal Agency

Based on the provisions of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, the EEOC is the federal agency responsible for managing “workplace discrimination.” US-based businesses should follow certain EEOC guidelines, post important notices, offer an internal way for workers to submit complaints, and submit an EEO Report every year if they are state contractors or matched employers.

2. State

The California DFEH (Department of Fair Employment & Housing) monitors cases of illegal bullying and harassment at the workplace as per the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) of 1959.

The following compliance duties are legally required of California businesses under FEHA:

Distributing a sexual harassment fact sheet or poster created by the DFEH to every employee, or material that is comparable
Delivering training to staff members every two years on preventing sexual harassment & abusive behavior
Preserving for a minimum of two years a record of each employee’s training

The most recent changes to the legislation require California firms with a minimum of five workers to abide by the following by January 1, 2021:

All supervisory personnel must complete at least two hours of interactive classroom or online training on workplace sexual harassment (new managerial staff must get training within 6 months of starting the supervisory job).
All non-supervisory staff should get at least sixty minutes of sexual harassment instruction (new non-supervisory staff must receive training within 6 months of being hired).

In addition to the legal consequences and remedies accessible to victims of abuse, the company’s training must include “knowledge and practical assistance” about the prevention and prohibition of sexual harassment.

It should be mentioned that, although “abusive conduct” in the workplace must be framed within a broader legal framework of workplace discrimination or harassment in order to be illegal, an earlier modification (AB 2053) to FEHA, which went into effect on 1^st Jan 2015, mandates that sexual harassment prevention be covered in training on sexual harassment for staff holding supervisory positions in California.

It is highly recommended that “trainers & educators with expertise in preventing acts of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation” take charge of this training. Additionally, realistic examples & explanations of how sexual assault and other forms of bullying appear in the workplace should be part of the training.

California Requires Training on Sexual Harassment Prevention

In addition to being mandated by California, sexual harassment prevention training is one of the only strategies that truly aids in minimizing the incidence of sexual harassment in the workplace. Consequently, California employers ought to make a commitment to it for the benefit of their workers’ welfare as well as the legal, financial, and public standing of their businesses. The purpose of compulsory sexual harassment training, such as California SB 1343, California AB 1825, and California AB 2053, is to safeguard workers from any form of harassment at work.

Successful businesses and their employees should receive interactive training that is created with the most recent standards and guidelines in the e-learning industry in mind, even though the California Department of Fair Employment provides its own basic complimentary lessons on the avoidance of discrimination and harassment. The learners should do more than just go through the steps of “avoiding an occurrence of harassment training” to meet the minimum criteria; they should truly comprehend this troubling occurrence and make a sincere commitment to preventing it.

If training isn’t sustainable, what good is it? Go for a training that complies with all California state regulations, including the inappropriate behavior training required by Government Code section 12950.1, subsection (g)(2), and is easy for businesses to administer and easy (and enjoyable!) for employees to use. Take a sample and try it out first to make your life and the lives of your employees easier! Consider your budget and choose simple price plans as per your requirements and size.

Lastly, even if the bullying you encounter at work does not trigger any particular legal protections granted to California workers, consulting with a lawyer can still be beneficial. Sometimes all it takes for a company to begin addressing harassment at work and its detrimental impact on employee morale (and possibly their bottom line) is the awareness that you are investigating your legal options. It also helps you understand the ramifications of abusive conduct under California law in more detail.

Have a quick question? We answered nearly 2000 FAQs.

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Abusive Conduct Under California Law: Definition, Workplace Examples, and Employer Obligations

Introduction

What qualifies as abusive conduct under California Law?

The definition of abusive conduct under California Law

Hostile work environment

In what way does “conduct that someone with common sense would find offensive, hostile, and unconnected to the employer’s legitimate company interests” fall under this category?

The Most Recent California Compliance Requirements

Which Agencies Uphold Employment Laws in California?

California Requires Training on Sexual Harassment Prevention

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