New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday signed into law legislation that expands protections against sexual harassment by eliminating the longtime legal standard of “severe and pervasive”. Historically, under the old legal standard, discriminatory or retaliatory harassment had the burden of proving that the alleged harassment was “severe and pervasive”, whereas now, harassment need only be anything above a petty slight or trivial inconvenience. In addition, it eases the path by which an employer can be held liable, expands the attorney general’s authority over harassment cases, prohibits mandatory arbitration and triples – to three years – the time given for one to file a complaint with the state Human Rights Department. Violations of the new law include fines by the state, actual and punitive damages, state fines, employee reinstatement, union membership restoration or other remediations.