Workplace violence prevention laws are expanding: Here’s what you need to know

Workplace violence is no longer a background issue. It’s increasingly front and center in the national conversation. With frequent headlines about mass shootings and on-the-job assaults, the topic has garnered growing attention from the public and policy makers.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 14% of the reported workplace fatalities in 2023 were attributed to acts of violence. This is a continuing trend over the last several years and one that’s driving more states to take legislative action.

While OSHA provides voluntary guidelines, it does not currently have a mandate for employers to implement workplace violence prevention programs. Therefore, states have the right to create safety regulations that exceed the current OSHA requirements or in this case, create regulations that OSHA does not have in place.

States step up: legislative momentum builds

Several states already have implemented workplace violence prevention laws—especially for workers in high-risk environments like health care. Illinois, Connecticut, Maine, New Hampshire, Maryland, Oregon, and Washington have legislation to protect health care professionals. The newest state to pass legislation for health care worker protection was Vermont in April of 2025. Meanwhile, California’s S.B.553, passed in 2023, extended protection across all industries—making it currently the most sweeping workplace violence legislation.

Now, New York state is the newest state to enact workplace violence legislation. While New York already had enacted laws for the protection of state, city and county workers, the state recently expanded its laws to incorporate the protection for public school employees in 2024. This new legislation is the first to apply to private workplaces—specifically for the retail worker.

So, why retail workers? The data speaks for itself. Retail workers experience some of the highest rates of workplace violence. In fact, 30% of workplace fatalities in the retail sector are due to violent acts. That’s because these types of jobs often involve direct, high-volume interaction with the public—increasing exposure to potentially dangerous situations.

The New York Retail Worker Safety Act was signed into law on Sept. 5, 2024, and it will go into effect in June 2025. The act requires the state Department of Labor to create a model workplace violence prevention program, which was made available on its website on May 29, 2025.

What employers must do to comply: The EAP framework

To meet the law’s requirements, employers should follow the EAP safety principle, a three-pronged approach widely used in occupational safety disciplines that applies Engineering Controls, Administrative Controls, and Personal Protective Equipment to reduce workplace hazards:

Engineering the risk exposure out. Much of the engineering controls begin with the workplace evaluation of risk. Employers will be required to evaluate the workplace to determine the presence of factors or situations that might place employees at the risk of workplace violence. Examples of these include:

• work performed in the early or late hours of the day;
• cash exchange with the public;
• employees scheduled to work alone; and
• uncontrolled access to the workplace.

Some engineering controls can include improved lighting in the workplace, placing employees in areas where they are more visible to others, using drop safes or going cashless for transactions, installation of security cameras, and installing electronic locks or bullet proof glass to separate workers from the general public.

Administrative controls to reduce exposure time and establish procedures to minimize risk. The establishment of the workplace violence prevention plan is the primary encompassing administrative component. This plan will more than likely model the current plan utilized for New York state’s public employee workplace violence prevention law. Typically, the requirements will include:

• A written plan to educate employees on appropriate workplace procedures pertaining to preventing workplace violence and the requirements of the law. The plan will have to be provided to employees upon hire.
• Employee training will need to be conducted for all affected employees, covering the following: de-escalation tactics; active-shooter drills; and measures employees can take to protect themselves. This can include: emergency procedures; use of security alarms and panic buttons; and procedures dealing with harassment from customers and co-workers.
• Incident reporting procedures and investigations.
• Annual review of the program to include changes necessary based on findings and incidents incurred in the prior year.

Personal protective equipment to be the last line of defense. This law has specific requirements for larger retailers to install panic buttons throughout the workplace or provide wearable or mobile-phone based panic buttons that will automatically dispatch local law enforcement to respond.

To learn more about the state Department of Labor’s model workplace violence prevention program, visit the department’s Safety and Health Page.