BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana will enact its first government-wide policy against sexual harassment, under a measure given final passage by lawmakers after the secretary of state and a top aide to the governor resigned amid sexual misconduct allegations.
Rep. Barbara Carpenter, the Baton Rouge Democrat who sponsored the bill, asked female lawmakers to surround her Wednesday as the House sent the proposal to Gov. John Bel Edwards with a 98-0 vote. The Democratic governor supports the measure and is expected to sign it into law.
The bill will require state and local government agencies to enact anti-sexual-harassment policies that include a process for handling complaints, a ban against retaliation when someone files a complaint and mandatory prevention training each year. The requirements will take effect Jan. 1, though agencies are encouraged to enact them sooner.
Agency heads will have to compile annual reports, due Feb. 1 of each year, documenting the number of employees who have completed the training requirements, the number of sexual harassment complaints received over the last year and the number of complaints that resulted in disciplinary action. The records are required to be available to the public.
Female lawmakers called for a review of state policies against sexual misconduct after accusations across the nation spurred by the #MeToo movement unseated people in positions of power.
Louisiana has let government agencies cobble together their own standards, but hasn't required anti-sexual harassment policies to be enacted or set any parameters for them. The state's civil service department says most state agencies have established their own internal policies.
Approval of Carpenter's legislation came the day after Tom Schedler left office as Louisiana's secretary of state amid allegations he sexually harassed an employee and punished her when she rebuffed his advances. Schedler's spokeswoman said the pair had a consensual sexual relationship. The woman's lawyer denies that. Schedler's chief assistant, Kyle Ardoin, started working Wednesday in the interim role as the state's chief elections official until a successor is selected in a fall election.
Months earlier, Johnny Anderson resigned as Edwards' deputy chief of staff after a woman accused Anderson of sexually harassing her when they worked together in the governor's office. Anderson denied wrongdoing.
A legislative audit released in April shows Louisiana has spent more than $5 million on 82 lawsuits involving sexual harassment claims since 2009. That includes payments to people who filed claims as well as lawyers' costs. Louisiana recently paid $85,000 to settle the misconduct claims against Anderson.
Beyond the lawsuits, Legislative Auditor Daryl Purpera's office said executive branch agencies reported 330 internal complaints involving sexual harassment from 2013 through 2017. The attorney general's office told auditors that it doesn't track such complaints.
The most significant disagreement that emerged during the bill debate was over whether to keep certain details of sexual-misconduct investigations shielded from public view. Those public records exemptions didn't make it into the final version of the measure heading to the governor.
A separate anti-harassment proposal that would have banned employers from requiring their workers to sign contracts that keep them from filing sexual misconduct lawsuits in civil court failed to win support and was jettisoned in the House.
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House Bill 524: www.legis.la.gov
