Effective as of March 2025

The New York Retail Worker Safety Act requires corporate retail employers to adopt a violence prevention plan and train workers in de-escalation and active shooters. Large employers will need to install panic buttons throughout the workplace.  

New York Governor Hochul signed into law S. 8358B/A. 8947C, which says…

Employers must have the obligation to create a safe work environment by doing the following:

Employers with 10 or more employees must do the following to create a safe work environment:

1. Adopt a retail workplace violence prevention policy that identifies factors that put retail workers at risk of violence, and outlines methods to prevent violence.

2. Provide annual training for employees on de-escalation tactics, active shooter drills, emergency procedures, use of panic buttons and more.

3. The Department of Labor will develop templates for the violence prevention policy and trainings to facilitate employer compliance.

4. All retail employers with more than 500 employees statewide must install panic buttons at easily accessible locations throughout the building, or offer wearable or mobile-phone based panic buttons to all employees.

There is precedent for this program. The Retail Worker Safety Act builds on the public sector’s workplace violence protection law from 2006, while using the statutory framework of New York’s groundbreaking 2018 workplace sexual harassment protection law.

More information can be found here.