Last year, Governor Kathy Hochul signed into law the Retail Worker Safety Act (Act), one of the most extensive retail workplace violence prevention laws in the nation.
Following an enforcement delay due to a February 2025 amendment to the Act, several of the Act’s mandates will now take effect in under three months.
Effective June 2, 2025, covered employers will be required to (1) adopt a written retail workplace violence prevention policy, (2) conduct a workplace violence prevention training, and (3) satisfy an employee notice requirement. Additionally, starting January 1, 2027, covered employers with 500 or more retail employees in the state of New York will be required to provide their retail employees with access to an emergency “silent response button” at the workplace.
The Act applies to all employers with at least 10 employees working at a “retail store.” A “retail store” is broadly defined as “a store that sells consumer commodities at retail and which is not primarily engaged in the sale of food for consumption on the premises.”
Effective June 2, 2025, the Act requires all covered employers to provide their retail employees with a written retail workplace violence prevention policy. The policy must be provided to retail employees at the time of hire and during each workplace violence prevention training thereafter.
The Act also mandates that the policy must satisfy a range of additional...
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