H.R. 4599 — Protections and Transparency in the Workplace Act

This section defines "covered discrimination and harassment" in Section 3(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 to include discrimination on specified bases under federal law (i.e., Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, Age Discrimination in Employment Act, Americans with Disabilities Act title I, Rehabilitation Act section 501, Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act title II, and Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act section 4311), sexual harassment, and sexual assault or abuse. The section further requires issuers filing annual or quarterly reports under Section 13 of that Act to disclose in each such report (1) numbers of covered discrimination and harassment claims received, under investigation, and resolved in the period; (2) numbers of settlements and court judgments in the period; (3) aggregate payments made in connection with such claims (including by third parties or insurance); (4) outcomes of adjudicated cases; (5) repeat settlements by specific individuals; (6) prevention efforts (e.g., mandatory training); and (7) average resolution time—covering the issuer, parents, subsidiaries, and affiliates in aggregated, affiliate-aggregate, and separate formats. It also requires a separate attestation by the issuer's general counsel, chief financial officer, chief executive officer, and board members confirming compliance policies for these disclosures and related proxy rules; current reports upon entering or exiting claim resolution agreements (noting repeat offenders, with name redactions permitted); and defines "claim" to include allegations, assertions, or legal actions.

This section establishes independent investigatory requirements for issuers under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. For any covered discrimination and harassment claim (i.e., any allegation, assertion, or formal legal action), an issuer must engage and pay for a third-party law firm—selected only with agreement by all involved employees—to conduct an impartial, fact-finding investigation rather than at the issuer's direction or defined scope.

This section establishes requirements under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for covered issuers (i.e., issuers with securities registered under section 12) to develop and implement anti-discrimination and harassment programs. Specifically, it (1) requires training programs for all employees—covering definitions of covered discrimination and harassment, victim impacts, reporting rights and procedures, bystander intervention, prevention strategies, and resources (e.g., human resources contacts, whistleblower tip line, law enforcement, mental health services)—with separate training for managers and human resources staff, completion by new employees within 60 days of hire, annual completion by all employees, and retraining for perpetrators; (2) mandates annual employee surveys on feelings of safety, comfort in reporting sexual harassment, and improvements to reporting channels; (3) requires contracting with third-party law firms to conduct the training and surveys (with a sense of Congress favoring the same firm for both); and (4) requires an anonymous whistleblower tip line with immediate reporting of tips to the general counsel, head of human resources, and board of directors. It defines "employee" to include volunteers and independent contractors (and their employees or volunteers).