About
WHO WE ARE, AND WHAT WE’RE DOING
#HarassmentFreeAlbany, a campaign started by the Sexual Harassment Working Group, was launched by seven former New York State legislative employees who experienced, witnessed, or reported sexual harassment by former Assembly Members Vito Lopez and Micah Kellner, former Counsel to Speaker Sheldon Silver Michael Boxley, and Senator Jeff Klein.
The SHWG 2021 legislative agenda includes six bills, aiming to abolish abuser invincibility and protect survivors from retaliation and exclusion.
The bills would provide additional worker protections, including: closing unjust loopholes that permit abusers and employers to evade responsibility, retaliate against whistleblowers, exploit trauma to silence survivors, and unrealistically allow survivors merely three years to bring a claim to court.
FORMATION AND BACKGROUND
As the nation started to shine a light on what it means to say “me, too,” victims began to recognize the power and influence they have. The members of the SHWG were no exception. Individually, our passion for public service and desire to no longer be silent compelled us to come forward and start organizing.
On March 22, 2018 the Sexual Harassment Working Group publicly urged the New York State Legislature and Governor Andrew Cuomo to conduct a meaningful, transparent process to review and establish the state’s sexual harassment policy. Instead, elected officials passed incomplete and, in some cases, ill-conceived laws without sufficient input from experts, advocates, or victims. Although some of these new state laws do add protections, they fall far short of where we need to be in order to protect workers from the egregious misconduct that continues to dominate Albany headlines.
On February 13, 2019, the SWHG testified at the first joint legislative public hearing on sexual harassment, the first of its kind in New York State in over 27 years. The hearing lasted over 11 hours. SHWG continued to advocate and secured a second hearing in NYC on May 24, 2019 that lasted 13 hours.
In 2020, the SHWG urged the legislature to pass a 10-bill #HarassmentFreeNY package to provide “bedrock” protections for all workers. The SHWG also advocated for additional hearings across the state to gain further information which will be useful in crafting legislation.
The Sexual Harassment Working Group is completely volunteer run and is non-partisan, does not endorse nor support any elected officials or candidates for public office, and does not receive any lobbying funds or other funds.