In a prior post, we discussed the requirements of New York’s new Retail Worker Safety Act. The law, which was originally signed by Governor Hochul in September 2024 with an effective date of March 4, 2025, aimed at improving workplace safety for retail workers in New York by requiring interactive training, workplace violence prevention policies, and panic button implementation.
On February 14, 2025, Governor Hochul signed an amendment to the law. The amendments not only modify timeframes for employer compliance, but employer responsibilities as well.
The key updates are as follows:
- Extended Compliance Deadline: The law’s effective date has been pushed back from March 4, 2025 to June 2, 2025, giving retail employers more time to implement workplace violence prevention programs.
- Revised Training Frequency: The law’s workplace violence training requirements remain the same, but the requirements relating to frequency of training have changed for some employers. Retail employers with fewer than 50 employees will now be required to provide workplace violence prevention training every two years instead of annually. Larger retailers (those with 50+ employees) must still provide the training annually. All retailers must still provide this training at the time of hire.
- Changes to Emergency Response Measures: Employers with at least 500 retail employees statewide are no longer required to install panic buttons at their locations. Instead, they must ensure that employees have access to a silent response button for requesting immediate internal assistance in emergencies. These buttons may be stationary, wearable, or mobile-phone based. Employers must implement the silent response button requirement by January 1, 2027.
- Language Requirement Adjustments: The amendment also limits the number of non-English languages in which employers must provide workplace violence prevention policies and training materials. The New York Department of Labor (NYDOL) must prepare the model training policy in the 12 most common non-English languages in the state.
The NYDOL has yet to issue the model policies and training materials. With the new effective date less than three months away, covered retail employers should consider whether they will be adopting the NYDOL model policies and training materials, or whether they will be developing their own.