As part of the 2019 New York Budget Bill, there were several pieces of legislation intended to combat sexual harassment. The rest of the bill is discussed in more detail in the section "Keep a Lookout," but one piece of the law, which is effective immediately, makes employers responsible for permitting sexual harassment in the workplace of contractors, subcontractors, vendors and others providing services pursuant to contracts. Employers are liable if they knew or should have known that the sexual harassment was occurring and failed to take appropriate corrective action. This means that if a contractor or vendor of an employer is being sexually harassed by any employee of the employer, the employer may be held liable for its employees' harassing conduct if it knew or should have known about that activity. This is a significant departure from the current law, which holds employers liable only to its own employees. This change may necessitate that employers distribute their anti-harassment policies and complaint procedures to all contractors in addition to their employees, in order to reduce risk of liability and preserve any defenses.
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