BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana's civil service director says the state doesn't have a government-wide policy for handling sexual misconduct allegations or requiring anti-harassment training, instead allowing agencies to cobble together their own standards.
Byron Decoteau told female lawmakers seeking to bolster efforts to combat sexual harassment that his department offers a web-based training course to government agencies and public colleges. But he told lawmakers Friday that he can't force them to use it.
The Department of Civil Service says at least 60 percent of state government and college employees take its sexual harassment training on average annually.
Sen. Regina Barrow, a Baton Rouge Democrat spearheading the legislative review, says she's concerned about lack of policy uniformity.
Louisiana has paid at least $2.6 million since 2004 to settle sexual-harassment claims, according to government data.
-By Melinda Deslatte, Associated Press
