States Tackle Workplace Violence Risks, With Retailers in Focus
Regulators have increased their focus on addressing workplace violence risks, including some with particular attention to risks associated with retail employers. Retailers from New York to California should monitor continued developments within state legislatures and adjust their workplace policies to account for these rules — new and old.
California now requires virtually all employers in the state to implement workplace violence prevention plans. The law imposes detailed requirements for each plan, including site-specific hazard assessments, processes to accept and respond to reports or threats of workplace violence, employee training, and emergency response.
The California law also requires employers to coordinate their plan development, training, and plan implementation with any other employers that have employees present at a shared work site, like vendors or contractors who operate on premises. Large retailers may have any number of other employers with employees on site — e.g., makeup counters, coffee bars, tailoring services, food services, vendor deliveries/stocking, etc. One of the industry sectors most burdened by this obligation may be management companies responsible for malls or other types of multi-use facilities with scores of employers and types of violence hazards.
All California employers should monitor developments from the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, which will be implementing more detailed regulations to assist employers with compliance and inform enforcement efforts.
On the other coast, New York is set begin enforcement of its retail workplace violence law on June 2, 2025. The New York Retail Worker Safety Act applies to employers with 10 or more retail employees, and imposes additional “silent response button” requirements for employers with 500 or more employees in New York. The state legislature amended the law in February 2025 to delay the effective date until June (from April) and cut back some of the compliance requirements, particularly for smaller employers. The law covers virtually all retailers except those that primarily serve food on premises, like restaurants and delis.
Covered employers must maintain a retail workplace violence prevention policy that lists all factors that might create workplace violence risks, including late working hours; exchanging money with the public; working in small numbers; or uncontrolled, public access to the workplace. The policy also must include methods the employer uses to prevent incidents of workplace violence. The New York Department of Labor has promised to release a model plan employers may use to create their plans.
The New York law also requires training on methods employees can use to protect themselves from workplace violence, including de-escalation tactics. In addition, it will require larger employers to provide employees with “silent response buttons” that employees can use to alert a security officer, manager or supervisor in case of emergency. The initial draft of the law required “panic buttons,” before the February 2025 amendments. The “silent response button” requirements are not effective until Jan. 1, 2027.
Retailers that do not operate in New York or California also should consider violence hazard mitigation, as focus on this issue is unlikely to stop. For example, the Virginia General Assembly passed a workplace violence prevention law, but it was vetoed last month by the Governor. Virginia elects a new governor this fall, which could change the prospects for legislation. Furthermore, for over 30 years, federal OSHA has used the General Duty Clause (“GDC”) to issue citations to employers that fail to address workplace violence hazards. The GDC requires employers to provide employees with workplaces that are free from recognized hazards that are likely to cause serious injury or death. All retail industry sites that are open to the public have the risk of workplace violence, leaving this sector vulnerable to enforcement actions even in the absence of a specific safety standard.
Susan F. Wiltsie is a partner with Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at swiltsie@HuntonAK.com.
Reilly C. Moore is an associate with the firm in Richmond, VA. He can be reached at rmoore@HuntonAK.com.
Susan focuses her practice on labor, employment, and OSHA compliance, defense, and crisis response. Susan’s practice includes comprehensive OSHA representation of employers across all industry sectors. Her OSHA practice includes compliance assistance, training, citation defense, participation in rulemaking, appellate administrative litigation, whistleblower cases, creation/oversight of PSM/RMP and general OSHA audit programs, and fatality/serious injury accident investigations. She has substantial experience guiding organizations through infectious disease outbreak response and related compliance with the myriad of applicable safety, labor, employment, and public health requirements.
Susan has over 30 years of experience representing employers in all other aspects of the employer-employee relationship as well, including discrimination, harassment, whistleblower, tort claims, contract claims, defamation, wrongful discharge, trade secret, covenants not to compete, duty of loyalty, wage/hour, retaliation, FMLA, ADA, and WARN Act. She has particularly broad experience regarding accommodation and leave issues, with a keen understanding of the interplay between federal/state family and medical leave laws, federal/state disability laws, state/local sick pay and paid family leave laws, OSHA, and workers’ compensation. Her experience extends to representation of employers with unionized workforces and includes collective bargaining, labor arbitration, and unfair labor practice matters and advice relating to contract compliance and grievance handling. She has handled numerous large and small reductions in force and voluntary retirement programs.
Susan conducts and oversees investigations following workplace accidents and infectious disease outbreak as part of her OSHA work. She also is a “go-to” lawyer for crises relating to allegations of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation involving senior and executive leadership. She has a significant track record of meticulous and thoughtful investigative work.
Susan is admitted to practice in the Virginia state courts, Eastern and Western Federal District Courts of Virginia, District of Columbia Superior Court, District of Columbia Federal District Court, Federal District Court of Maryland, Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, and US Supreme Court. She has represented employers in employment and/or OSHA/MSHA litigation in almost every state in the continental United States.
Reilly counsels employers on labor-management relations, OSHA compliance and complex employment law issues. Reilly has worked on multiple union organizing campaigns and counseled employers through the representation petition process. Reilly counsels employers on other labor-management relations issues, including collective bargaining and grievance and arbitration procedures.
Reilly’s experience includes assisting nationwide clients with regard to CDC, OSHA, state and local COVID-19 mandates and guidance. He plays a key role assisting companies across energy, healthcare, manufacturing and retail industries defending OSHA citations related to COVID-19 and other workplace injuries. Reilly has assisted clients with OSHA compliance and defending OSHA citations in California, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, South Dakota, and Virginia.
Reilly has defended clients in a variety of traditional employment matters, including Title VII employment discrimination claims, Family Medical Leave Act claims, Fair Labor Standards Act class actions and state law public policy claims. Reilly also has extensive experience representing clients in front of government agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor Relations Board.
