CPB Announces New CSG Eligibility Training on Harassment Prevention

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On February 26, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) release a letter stating that all stations receiving the Community Service Grant (CSG) will be required to take harassment prevention training in order to certify for their CSG grants. This new requirement is a part of a larger effort to maintain safe and respectful workplaces, and will be effective March 31, 2018.

 

CPB will allow stations to fulfill this requirement using a comparable training with their employer, and will provide online training modules for stations that do not have any type of training available.

 

This requirement will be a part of the next CSG Agreement and Certification of Eligibility, meaning that stations must certify completion of this new training by October 1, 2018. Details will be forthcoming from the CPB Office of Grants Administration.

 

See more details in the full letter from CPB below.

 

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Date:   February 26, 2018

 

To:      CSG Grantees

 

From:  Pat Harrison

 

Re:      Harassment Prevention Training for CSG Eligibility

 

On December 8, 2017, I wrote on behalf of CPB to affirm that one of the responsibilities of CPB Community Service Grant recipients is to comply with Federal laws and regulations that prohibit employment discrimination, including sexual harassment. Today, I am asking you to join CPB in an effort to eradicate harassment of any kind in the workplace.

 

Workplace harassment is often unnoticed and/or not reported. We can create a positive workplace environment through prompt detection and enforcement enhanced by an informed workforce that recognizes violations and has multiple avenues through which to report and respond to violations. All organizations, large or small, must systematically reinforce their employees’ understanding and intolerance of workplace harassment.

 

CPB requires annual harassment prevention training as a condition of employment, a practice which many of you follow and we consider appropriate for all public media stations that we support. Accordingly, effective March 31, 2018, CPB will require annual training of each grantee’s officers, employees and interns as a condition of eligibility for a radio or television CSG. To satisfy this requirement, we will offer stations an online, interactive training service, free of charge, that individually instructs your personnel on the following topics:

 

• What constitutes acceptable and unacceptable workplace behavior;

• How to recognize harassment when it occurs; and

• How to report and respond to violations.

 

You may also choose to utilize a comparable training program as long as it is administered to each person in your organization. This requirement will be included in the next CSG Agreement and Certification of Eligibility, which means that grantees must certify their completion of this year’s training by October 1, 2018. Our Office of Grants Administration will soon provide you more detailed information.  

 

We know you share our commitment to maintaining a work environment that is free from all forms of harassment. I appreciate your cooperation with the measures we are taking to enforce that commitment.