Last week, on the 1-year anniversary of the mass shooting at the Tops supermarket in Buffalo, New York State enacted a law requiring retail employers with 10 or more employees to develop and implement programs to prevent workplace violence.
The law, known as the Retail Worker Safety Act, will take effect on March 1, 2025, 180 days after its enactment. The law also directs the Department of Labor to create a model workplace violence prevention training program and requires employers to provide training on such programs.
Further, in perhaps the most controversial part of the new law, employers with 500 or more retail employees nationwide will be required to provide access to panic buttons or mobile phone–based panic buttons throughout their New York workplaces by January 1, 2027. The cost is a concern to employers, while the encroachment on privacy is a concern to employees. We will keep you posted on any further developments regarding this groundbreaking law.