TOP TIP: Maryland Sexual Harassment Disclosure Survey Now Open

 In

Last year, the Maryland General Assembly passed a law that, in part, requires Maryland employers with 50 or more employees to report on sexual harassment settlements. The reporting is done through a Maryland Commission on Civil Rights survey, which is now live and may be accessed here.

The first survey must be submitted on or before July 1, 2020, and the second and last survey must be submitted on or before July 1, 2022.

The survey consists of five webpages, and we are providing a pdf of those webpages for employers to see what information is being requested. The survey includes the following information of significance:

  • The survey period is October 1, 2018 through July 1, 2020. Thus, we note that employers who complete the survey well before the end of the period are not fulfilling the obligation to report for the entire period. Employers should wait until just before July 1, 2020 to complete the survey.
  • According to the survey, the 50-employee count includes employees across all the employer’s locations, and not just those employees in Maryland. The survey does not indicate when the count should take place; we suggest it is the count as of the date of the employer’s submission.

We also note that the survey (and the law) do not specify if the settlements to be reported are only those executed with Maryland employees or across all locations. The MCCR would probably contend that it should be all settlements, not just those in Maryland. We believe there is a tenable argument, however, that the MCCR and General Assembly only have jurisdiction over Maryland matters, and therefore only Maryland settlements need to be reported. (Of course, this is moot if there were no sexual harassment settlements at all.)