Passed and signed into law on May 5th, 2021, the NY HERO Act, requires businesses to protect employees and guests from infectious diseases.
Before the Law’s protections could be implemented, the Department of Health was required to declare a disease, like covid-19, “a highly contagious, communicable disease that presents a serious risk of harm to public health”
On September 6th, 2021, Gov. Kathy Hochul directed the Health Department to designate COVID-19 as highly contagious communicable disease” . That designation triggered complete implementation of the NY HERO Act, requiring all employers to implement workplace safety plans
Under the new Law, NYS Department of Labor in consultation with NYS Department of Health have developed the following templates. Employers can choose to adopt one of the above plan templates created by NYS DOL or develop their own plan that complies with or exceeds HERO Act standards.
- a Model Airborne Infectious Disease Exposure Prevention Plan, and
- a Model Airborne Infectious disease Exposure Prevention for plans for Food Service
Until now, employers were required only to adopt a safety plan and distribute it to employees no later than September 7th. Since the COVID-19 designation, employers are now required to activate their plans.
