New York’s Retail Worker Safety Act recently took effect and requires employers with 10 or more retail employees (defined as those who work in retail stores) to adopt a written workplace violence prevention policy and provide employee training. Employers with 500 or more retail employees in the state are also required to provide silent response buttons. Retail stores don’t include those that primarily sell food to eat on-site.

While the Retail Worker Safety Act took effect on June 2, 2025, the state’s model policy and training program was only released a few days ago. However, a representative from the New York State Department of Labor said the law won’t be enforced until employers have time to implement their plan and train their staff. Below is an overview of the law’s requirements.

Workplace Violence Prevention Policy
Employers are required to adopt a written workplace violence prevention policy that identifies workplace risks, outlines violence prevention methods, explains legal protections, and states that retaliation is unlawful.

Workplace Violence Prevention Training
Employers are required to provide retail employees with workplace violence prevention training that’s interactive and includes information such as emergency procedures, de-escalation tactics, and instructions on how to use emergency devices such as security alarms or silent response buttons. As part of this training, employers also need to provide retail employees with a site-specific list of emergency exits and meeting places.

The training must be provided upon hire and annually thereafter. However, employers with 49 or fewer retail employees only need to provide the training upon hire and every two years thereafter.

Notice
Employers are required to provide retail employees with the policy and the information presented in the training in writing upon hire and at every workplace violence training. These must be provided in English and the employee’s primary language.

Silent Response Buttons
By January 1, 2027, employers with 500 or more retail employees in the state must provide silent response buttons to employees that enable them to request immediate help from a security officer, manager, or supervisor during work. This requirement can be satisfied by installing the button in an easily accessible location in the workplace or providing employees with wearable or mobile phone-based buttons. Phone-based buttons can only be installed on employer equipment, and wearable buttons can’t be used to track employees except when the button has been activated.