ALBANY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed legislation toughening New York’s existing workplace sexual harassment protections Monday, delivering a key victory to advocates who have championed change throughout the 2019 legislative session.

Victims of sexual harassment no longer have to prove their mistreatment was “severe or pervasive” as defined under current standards. Instead, the new law expands that definition to include conduct that rises above “petty slights or trivial inconveniences.”

The measure was a top priority this session, as freshman lawmakers spearheaded the first hearings held in almost 30 years following demand from ex-legislative staffers preyed upon by former bosses known as the “Sexual Harassment Working Group.”

Victims of former Brooklyn Assemblyman and sex harasser Vito Lopez are co-founders of the “Sexual Harassment Working Group.” Lopez was accused of harassment in 2012 by female staffers for inappropriate acts. He resigned in 2013 following an investigation by the Joint Commission on Public Ethics. Co-Founder Leah Hebert was his former chief of staff, along with Rita Pasarell who worked as legislative counsel and deputy chief of staff, and Tori Burhans Kelly worked as his legislative aide.

The first hearing was held in Albany in February, the second in New York City in May.

“There has been an ongoing, persistent culture of sexual harassment, assault and discrimination in the workplace, and now it is time to act,” Cuomo said.

“By ending the absurd legal standard that sexual harassment in the workplace needs to be ‘severe or pervasive’ and making it easier for workplace sexual harassment claims to be brought forward, we are sending a strong message that time is up on sexual harassment in the workplace and setting the standard of equality for women.”

The new law — which will take effect in three phases starting in 60 days — amends the Human Rights Law to cover all employers in the state, both public and private and raises the statute of limitations for claims filed with the Division of Human Rights up from one, to three years.

Going forward, all non-disclosure agreements in employment contracts will be prohibited from banning an employee’s ability to file a complaint with a state or local agency and testify in a government investigation.

The bill also sets into motion a study analyzing sexual harassment policies, requiring a thorough review every four years.

“In 2018 a group of former legislative staffers came forward to demand justice for the years of sexual harassment they endured at the hands of powerful lawmakers and state agencies – today we are taking that power and putting it in the hands of survivors and working people of New York,” said bill sponsor and sexual abuse survivor state Sen. Alessandra Biaggi (D-Bronx).

But members of the business community are concerned particularly with a section barring the use of mandatory arbitration in settlement agreements, and another that strips employers of liability protections, known as the ‘faragher ellerth defense.’

Even if an individual “did not make a complaint about the harassment to such employer, licensing agency, employment agency or labor organization” it “shall not be determinative” as to whether or not the employer be held liable, according to the bill language.

“This weakens an affirmative defense employers have,” Frank Kerbein, director of the Center for Human Resources oat the Business Council of New York State, told The Post.

“If something happens during off hours, or over text and we have no way of knowing, we now have significant liability.”

“This will result in more claims and litigation…the harassers need to be held accountable, but this makes it hard even when employers are doing everything right,” he added.

A Siena College poll from January 2018 cited 74 percent of New Yorkers agreeing that sexual harassment in the workplace a “significant” problem.