On Sept. 4, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law the New York Retail Worker Safety Act, a comprehensive measure intended to increase worker safety and address the hazard of workplace violence in retail settings.
The act, which applies to retail employers with at least 10 employees and requires, among other things, assessments of potential workplace violence hazards, adoption of written workplace violence prevention policies, and workplace violence prevention training, will take effect on March 1, 2025, 180 days after its enactment.
Every employer with 500 or more retail employees nationwide will be required to provide access to panic buttons or mobile phone-based panic buttons throughout their workplaces in New York state by Jan. 1, 2027.
Now that the bill has been signed into law, all New York employers with at least 10 employees who work in a retail store will have to comply within 180 days. To comply with the Retail Worker Safety Act, retail employers—that is, “any person, entity, business, corporation, partnership, limited liability company, or an association employing at least 10 retail employees … [at] a store that sells consumer commodities at retail and which is not primarily engaged in the sale of food for consumption on the premises”—will have to implement written workplace violence prevention policies that address workplace violence risk factors and prevention methods.
Employers will also have to provide information and interactive training to employees...
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