Tag: Florida Legislature

FL Legislature Passes Bill Restricting Employee Training Topics Florida’s legislature has passed a new bill that will restrict topics that may be discussed in employee training. Florida House Bill 7 and its counterpart Senate Bill 7 would make it unlawful discrimination for employers who perform any workplace training to discuss topics that would compel them to believe or feel in a certain way. If signed into law, this bill could expose public and private employers of 15 or more to greater civil liability if they fail to adjust diversity and bias training accordingly. This bill closely resembles the Executive Order issued by the previous administration in 2020, which forbids discussion of divisive topics in diversity training. This order faced several lawsuits before being revoked under the current administration. According to House Bill 7, “subjecting any individual, as a condition of employment, membership, certification, licensing, credentialing, or passing an examination, to training, instruction, or any other required activity that espouses, promotes, advances inculcates, or compels such individual to believe specified concepts constitutes discrimination based on race, color, sex, or national origin.” The bill includes eight specified concepts including: “Members of one race, color, sex, or national origin are morally superior to members of another race, color, sex, or national origin. An individual, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously. An individual’s moral character or status as either privileged or oppressed is necessarily determined by his or her race, color, sex, or national origin. Members of one race, color, sex, or national origin cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to race, color, sex, or national origin. An individual, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, bears responsibility for or should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment because of actions committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, sex, or national origin. By virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, an individual should be discriminated against or receive adverse treatment to achieve diversity, equity, or inclusion. An individual, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish, or other forms of psychological distress because of actions in which the individual played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, sex, or national origin. Such virtues as merit, excellence, hard work, fairness, neutrality, objectivity, and racial colorblindness are racist or sexist, or were created by members of a particular race, color, sex, or national origin to oppress members of another race, color, sex, or national origin.” Though the bill forbids discussing these topics in such a way as would appear to be an endorsement, it does permit including them in instructional programs provided they are portrayed objectively. Likely anticipating legal challenges to come, House Bill 7 states that should any part of the bill relating to unlawful employment practices be invalidated, the remaining parts of the bill will still remain in effect. The bill is expected to be signed into law by the governor soon. As a result, employers should review their employee training programs to ensure compliance. Interested in learning more about Pre-employ's background checks? Talk to Sales today. Sources

Tag: Florida Legislature

FL Legislature Passes Bill Restricting Employee Training Topics

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