Workplace Safety Committees Defined in Proposed Regulations for New York State’s HERO Act

By Carolyn D. Richmond, Glenn S. Grindlinger and Bryn Goodman

The New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) has released long-awaited proposed rules for the New York Health and Essential Rights Act (also known as the HERO Act) addressing joint labor-management workplace safety committees comprised of employer and employee designees.

As noted in our prior alert, the NYSDOL already issued regulations related to Section 1 of the HERO Act, which requires that New York employers adopt an airborne infectious disease prevention plan. The plans must be implemented when the New York State Commissioner of Health designates a disease as a highly contagious infectious disease.1

Section 2 of the HERO Act gives employees the right to be involved in making and reviewing safety procedures and compliance through a joint-labor management workplace safety committee.