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NJ Legislative Leaders Want To Revise Sexual Harassment Policy

Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg

New Jersey doesn't mandate training on preventing sexual harassment for state lawmakers and their staff and some legislative leaders want that to change.

Senate Majority Leader Loretta Weinberg and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin say it’s time to update the state’s policy that was enacted nine years ago.

Weinberg says the Me-Too movement shows women don't have to put up with sexual harassment.

"I think this is a perfect time for the legislature, between elected officials and the hundreds of employees that we all work with on a daily basis, to make sure that everybody is protected."

Debbie Walsh directs the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers. She says a new policy should include a clear path to report incidents without concerns about retaliation.

"You can't just go by if there haven't been some recent complaints, that there is nothing going on. One of the reasons we may not know about them is there's not a clear way for people to step forward and to lodge a complaint."

Senator Weinberg is revising a bill that would ban non-disclosure agreements so those who've been harassed can end the secrecy that allows harassers to continue a pattern of abuse.