House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

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House of Representatives
Session of 2017 - 2018 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted:	June 6, 2018 04:29 PM
From:	Representative John T. Galloway
To:	All House members
Subject:	Co-sponsorship of Legislation – Policies and Procedures for harassment, discrimination, and retaliation

Over the past few months, the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements have brought to light the pervasive harassment that women and men have faced in the workplace. As victim after victim come forward, state legislatures across the country have started to explore a variety of different solutions to not only make it easier for victims to come forward but to prevent harassment and discrimination in the first place. Therefore, I believe it is our responsibility to ensure that employers are taking proactive steps to protect workers from harassment and discrimination. One way that employers can proactively combat sexual harassment and discrimination is by creating written policies and procedures to educate their employees, interns, and volunteers on what harassment is, the process for reporting complaints of harassment or retaliation, and the procedure for investigating these complaints. Therefore, in the near future, I will be introducing legislation that will do just that. Specifically, this bill will amend the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA) to require employers to adopt written policies and procedures for preventing harassment, discrimination, and retaliation against employees, interns, and volunteers. Everyone deserves to work in an environment where they are valued and safe, therefore, as legislators, it should be our goal to eliminate harassment and discrimination in the workplace. This bill takes the necessary legislative steps towards reaching that goal. Please join me in cosponsoring this important piece of legislation

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