State of New York Assembly Bill 8947: Retail Worker Safety Act

By CPI
October 30, 2024
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Effective on March 4, 2025, the New York Retail Worker Safety Act mandates that employers with at least ten retail employees establish a comprehensive workplace violence prevention policy. Additionally, the Act requires employers to create an interactive training program addressing workplace violence, which includes de-escalation techniques. These safety measures aim to protect retail workers from the increasing threats of workplace violence.

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Three Easy Steps to Bring CPI Training to Your Store

Step 1: Schedule a 15-minute call with CPI. We will guide you through the steps to create an effective workplace violence prevention policy and bring de-escalation training to your store.

Step 2: Obtain a complimentary training program recommendation. We will recommend a training program that will help you to utilize New York Assembly Bill 8947 to protect your team from the increasing threats of workplace violence.

Step 3: Train your staff. With our online and virtual de-escalation training, we will make it easy for you to ensure worker safety, improve employee satisfaction and retention, and establish a superior customer experience.

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CPI training programs make it easy for all retail staff to gain foundational de-escalation skills, regardless of role or risk level.

De-escalation and Violence Prevention Training for Retail

Starting with this 30-minute online training, retail workers will gain the fundamental skills to feel confident and safe when engaging with difficult customers. Ongoing micro-learnings reinforce concepts. Recommended for all staff.

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Verbal Intervention™ Training

Provide your staff with in-depth skills to identify, respond to, and prevent or mitigate challenging customer behavior with verbal intervention techniques. Recommended for managers.

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Legal Requirements

New York Assembly Bill 8947
Retail Worker Safety Act
Passed: September 5, 2024
Effective: March 4, 2025

§27-e

1.(a) – “Employer” means any person, entity, business, corporation, partnership, LLC or an association employing at least 10 employees. It does not include state or governmental agencies.

“Retail Store” means a store that sells consumer commodities at retail and which is not primarily engaged in the sale of food for consumption on the premises.

3. The Department of Labor shall publish a model workplace violence training program The model training program shall be interactive and shall include, but not be limited to:

(ii) examples of measures retail employees can use to protect themselves when faced with actual or threatened workplace violence from customers or other coworkers;

CPI Alignment

CPI’s De-escalation and Violence Prevention Training for Retail and Verbal Intervention programs provide all staff – from frontline associates to store managers – with de-escalation skills.

CPI’s Crisis Development ModelSM helps retail employees identify and understand how a crisis escalates and the appropriate responses to maintain safety. Retailers also learn how to manage and respond to conflict and disruptive behaviors.

Our training includes video scenarios tailored for retail environments, including relevant situations that employees experience in their day-to-day role.

Whether online or in classroom, our training is designed to engage participants with interactive activities, which includes having participants put learnings into practice (e.g., identifying the appropriate crisis behavior level and utilizing the most effective staff response in a crisis situation).

(iii) de-escalation tactics

CPI Alignment

CPI’s De-escalation and Violence Prevention Training for Retail and Verbal Intervention programs can help retail employees interpret a person's distress behavior as a response of the brain and body. Our training also helps retail employees understand the reason for behavior and how it impacts a crisis situation.

Retail employees will also learn about the Integrated Experience, which explains how the behavior of a staff member can influence the attitude and behavior of a customer in distress.

Every employer shall utilize the model workplace violence prevention training program or establish a workplace violence prevention training program that equals or exceeds the minimum standards provided by the department’s model training program

4. Upon hiring and at every annual workplace violence prevention training, every employer shall provide its employees with a written copy of their retail workplace violence prevention policy and the information presented at the employer’s workplace violence prevention training program.

CPI Alignment

A 30-minute online course, CPI’s De-escalation and Violence Prevention Training for Retail is ideal for annual training and onboarding of new employees. Brief (2-7 minute) micro-learning modules help solidify course content for practical application throughout the year.