By Andrea Matsuoka | October 24, 2018
California Governor Jerry Brown recently signed AB 2358, a bill that seeks to address potential discrimination and harassment in building and construction trade apprenticeship programs. While AB 2358 contains broad anti-discrimination language, it was designed to encourage women in particular to pursue building and construction careers, beginning with apprenticeships.
AB 2358 expressly prohibits discrimination in building and construction trade apprenticeship programs on the basis of enumerated categories including sex, gender, race, national origin, religious creed, and disability. AB 2358 also requires these apprenticeship programs to affirmatively promote equal opportunity in several ways:
- Programs must include an equal opportunity pledge in their apprenticeship standards, publications and bulletin boards; incorporate equal opportunity policies into orientations and information sessions; and provide equal opportunity notices to contractors annually.
- Programs also must provide interactive anti-harassment and anti-discrimination training to all apprentices, instructors, and employees and implement procedures for handling and resolving complaints of harassment or discrimination.
- Programs must designate one or more individuals to monitor all apprenticeship activity for equal opportunity compliance and to maintain compliance records, in order to promote coordination and accountability.