Montpelier
Rep. Sarah Copeland Hanzas, D-Bradford, sponsored the legislation that received support from Vermont’s three major parties.
Copeland Hanzas said that while the #MeToo movement helped get justice for those with high-profile harassers, she wanted to do more to protect the average Vermont worker.
“I wasn’t hearing a lot of people talking about fixing some of the fundamental imbalances in our work environments that have really helped to perpetuate and pass along harassers, and I was frustrated,” she said.
The law prohibits companies from requiring employees to sign away their right to report or sue for sexual harassment, and prohibits settlement agreements from including provisions that bar the employee from working for the employer in the future. It also allows the attorney general to intervene and creates an online portal where workers can make complaints.
Copeland Hanzas said she was proud of a provision that extended protections to volunteers, interns and independent contractors, who had little recourse under the previous law.
Lisa Senecal worked with Copeland Hanzas during the bill-writing phase. Senecal, who serves on the Vermont Commission of Women, detailed her experiences with sexual harassment in the workplace, including dealing with an “unprovoked and unwelcome sexual aggressor” while interviewing for a position at a Vermont software company.
“In my most recent case I worked with an attorney, but in previous situations when I was young I would not have had the resources to hire a private attorney,” Senecal said. “The enhanced reporting capabilities through the attorney general’s office will make it much easier for people who have experienced sexual harassment to make a complaint.”
Vermont, a small state with a lot of small businesses, faces unique challenges because many businesses do not have enough employees to warrant a designated human resources department, Copeland Hanzas said.
“Maybe the person that you’re supposed to report harassment to is related to the person that’s been harassing you, or maybe it’s the person themself,” Copeland Hanzas said.
Copeland Hanzas was not the only state lawmaker inspired by the #MeToo movement.
Twenty states have introduced or enacted legislation on the issue this year, and that trend is expected to continue, said Suzanne Hultin of the National Conference of State Legislatures. Much of the legislation deals with the use of nondisclosure agreements in sexual harassment settlements.
Copeland Hanzas hopes to revisit the use of non-disclosure agreements in the future. Senecal broke her agreement after hearing her harasser had engaged in similar behavior with a second woman.
“There have been too many stories that I have heard of people that signed a nondisclosure agreement, only to find the person that harassed them continued to harass other people,” Copeland Hanzas said. “That doesn’t fit with the spirit of what we’re trying to accomplish.”