Retail workers hail New York’s new panic-button law

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on Thursday signed a retail worker safety act into law requiring retailers to take certain actions to promote safety at stores, including precautionary measures like better lighting, adequate staffing, employee training and more.

Under the new law, companies with 50 or more retail employees must install panic buttons, which the legislation defines as “a physical button that when pressed immediately dispatches local law enforcement to the workplace.”

Panic buttons installed only about a week ago were instrumental in limiting the number of casualties during a school shooting in Georgia this week where four people, including two high schoolers, died, law enforcement told reporters Wednesday.

Retailers have made violent crime at stores a centerpiece of their lobbying efforts at the state and federal levels. Last year, David Johnston, vice president of asset protection and retail operations at the National Retail Federation, told members of a U.S. House Homeland Security Committee panel that retail “employees are fearful” about what he said was a rising problem of often violent crime at stores.

That’s backed up by other research. The Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union found that over 80% of respondents to a survey of its members said they’re worried about an active shooter coming into their workplace and that nearly two-thirds were harassed or felt intimidated by a customer, co-worker or manager in the last year. Similarly, a survey by Theatro, a mobile communication platform for frontline workers, found that 80% of store workers don’t feel protected by their employers, and that 72% were ill-equipped to respond to threats because their store was understaffed. 

However, several retail organizations, including the National Retail Federation, the Retail Industry Leaders Association and the Retail Council of New York State, opposed New York’s legislation, according to an August letter from the groups to the governor. In that letter, they called for a “genuine, holistic approach to store and community safety,” but said they urged a veto on the bill due to its “specific provisions,” including panic buttons.

“The costly mandates proposed in the bill — including the installation of panic buttons — will do little, if anything, to address recidivists entering stores with the intent to engage in illegal activity such as shoplifting and assault,” the letter reads, citing an earlier statement from the New York Police Department’s community affairs bureau that said panic buttons are “not advisable.”

Walmart reportedly opposed the legislation, including the panic-button requirement, according to statements made to Reuters by Dan Bartlett, the retail giant’s executive vice president of corporate affairs, in which he also downplayed the scale of threats at stores. Walmart declined to comment to Retail Dive.

As public spaces, stores and malls are vulnerable to gun violence including mass shootings, with the number of incidents escalating in recent decades. Along with the tragic nature of these events, retailers as a practical matter face liabilities when they occur, and laws like New York’s new retail safety act and similar legislation recently passed in California are likely to increase that risk, experts say.

Most importantly, the new law will make both workers and shoppers safer, according to RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum.

“The preventative measures this law provides will help stop violence and harassment before it starts, but even more importantly, will more safely assist workers in getting help quickly in the event of an emergency,” he said in a statement. “From West Hempstead to Buffalo, union workers have suffered grave losses to senseless store shootings. The provisions in this bill can help to save lives, and with Governor Hochul’s support and swift implementation we know we will all be safer.”