The New York State Department of Labor (DOL) recently published a proposed regulation regarding the NYS HERO Act and the provisions surrounding workplace safety committees. As we had previously reported, the HERO Act requires employers with 10 or more employees to allow the employees to “establish and administer a joint labor-management workplace safety committee.” Importantly, employers are not required to form such a committee on behalf of their employees. However, if employees choose to form a workplace safety committee, the employer has certain obligations surrounding the conduct of the safety committee. The committee must include both supervisory and non-supervisory employees, and the committee’s size requirement is relative to the size of the operation. Meeting and training time related to the committee obligations must be paid by the employer, within reasonable limitations outlined in the law.
The State will receive comments and feedback on the proposed regulation and, upon review of the comments and further analysis of the proposed regulation, a final regulation will be issued.
Please reach out to us if you have questions about the safety committees or, more generally, about your obligations under the Hero Act.