Five jurisdictions now impose workplace violence prevention training duties that differ in who is covered, how often training repeats, and how long records must be kept: California requires initial and annual training for nearly all employers under Labor Code 6401.9, New York requires annual training for public employers with 20 or more full-time permanent employees under Labor Law 27-b, New York’s Retail Worker Safety Act requires annual training for employers with 10 or more retail employees under Labor Law 27-e, Washington requires training tied to a facility-specific plan in health care settings under RCW 49.19, and New Jersey requires annual training for licensed health care facilities. A multi-state employer cannot satisfy these with one course and one completion date.
The sequencing problem is what makes this hard. The obligations are triggered by different things — geography in California, sector in New York and New Jersey, headcount in both New York statutes — so the same 400-person employer may owe annual training to everyone in one state, to retail staff only in another, and to nobody in a third.
What Does Each State Actually Require?
The table below is the comparison most employers need and cannot find in one place. Each row is verified against the statute or the administering agency.
| Jurisdiction | Who is covered | Training frequency | Record retention |
|---|---|---|---|
| California — Labor Code 6401.9 (SB 553) | Nearly all employers and places of employment, with narrow exceptions | Initial, then annually; additional training on new hazards or plan changes | Training records 1 year minimum; violent incident log and hazard records 5 years |
| New York — Labor Law 27-b | Public employers with 20 or more full-time permanent employees | At initial assignment and annually thereafter | Per program and agency recordkeeping rules |
| New York — Labor Law 27-e (Retail Worker Safety Act) | Employers with 10 or more retail employees in New York | At hiring and annually | Policy and training materials provided in writing at hire and at each annual training |
| Washington — RCW 49.19 | Health care settings as defined in the chapter | Within 90 days of hire, then on a regular basis as set in the facility plan | Per plan and facility recordkeeping |
| New Jersey — licensed health care facilities | Licensed health care facilities | Annual violence prevention training, plus a one-time course for designated employees | Per facility licensure rules |
Two additional Washington provisions catch employers by surprise. RCW 49.60.515 requires employers of isolated workers — hotel, motel, retail, security guard, and property services employers — to provide panic buttons and training on harassment and discrimination. And nothing in Washington’s health care chapter reaches general industry, so a Washington manufacturer has no state workplace violence training mandate at all and falls back to the OSHA general duty clause. Our explainer on Washington’s RCW 49.19 plan and training obligations covers the health care side in detail.
How Should Multi-State Employers Sequence the California Rollout?
California is the broadest of the five and the right place to start, because a plan built to Labor Code 6401.9 covers most of what the other states ask for. Under the Cal/OSHA fact sheet for general industry, covered employers must provide initial training and annually thereafter, and must provide additional training focused on the specific hazard or plan modification whenever new or previously unidentified hazards are discovered or the plan changes.
The content requirements are specific. Training must familiarize employees with the plan and how to obtain a copy, cover the definitions and requirements of Labor Code 6401.9, explain how to report incidents without fear of retaliation, address job-specific violence hazards and preventive measures, explain the purpose of the violent incident log and how to obtain related records, and include an opportunity for interactive discussion with someone knowledgeable about the plan. That last item is the one online-only programs most often miss — a recorded course with no route to a knowledgeable person does not satisfy it.
The exceptions in Labor Code 6401.9(b)(2) are narrow but practically important for distributed employers. Health care facilities already covered by 8 CCR 3342 comply with that standard instead; employees teleworking from a location of their own choosing that is not under the employer’s control are outside the plan; and worksites with fewer than 10 employees present at any given time that are not accessible to the public and that comply with the Injury and Illness Prevention Program standard are excepted. California Workplace Violence Prevention Plan training is the course built to this statute, and our guide to applying the SB 553 plan framework outside California explains why many employers standardize on it nationally.
A note on timing that matters for planning: Cal/OSHA was required to submit a proposed general-industry workplace violence standard to the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board no later than December 31, 2025, and the Board is required to adopt it no later than December 31, 2026. Employers should expect the regulation to add specificity to what the statute already requires rather than replace it.
How Do the Two New York Mandates Interact?
They are separate statutes with different populations, and employers routinely assume one covers the other.
Labor Law 27-b reaches public employers — the state, political subdivisions, public authorities, and public benefit corporations — with at least 20 full-time permanent employees. Those employers must develop a written workplace violence prevention program and provide information and training on the risks of occupational assaults and homicides at the time of initial assignment and annually thereafter, covering the law’s requirements, identified risk factors, how employees can protect themselves, and the employer’s specific procedures.
Labor Law 27-e, the Retail Worker Safety Act, reaches every employer with 10 or more retail employees in New York, public or private. Covered employers must adopt a retail workplace violence prevention policy and provide training, and must give employees the policy and the training content in writing — in English and in each employee’s identified primary language — at hiring and at every annual training. Starting January 1, 2027, retail employers with 500 or more employees in New York must provide a silent response button that requests immediate assistance from a security officer, manager, or supervisor, and must train employees on its use.
A grocery chain with 40 New York stores is therefore in scope under 27-e for store staff, out of scope under 27-b entirely, and — if it also operates in California — separately in scope under Labor Code 6401.9 for its California locations on a different content standard. The Retail Worker Safety Act training requirements and the broader retail-chain compliance stack cover the retail side; office safety workplace violence prevention and response covers the corporate and administrative population that sits outside the retail definition.
What About States With No Workplace Violence Training Mandate?
Most states have none, and “no mandate” is not the same as “no obligation.” Section 5(a)(1) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act — the general duty clause — requires employers to furnish a workplace free from recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious physical harm, and OSHA has cited employers for workplace violence hazards under it, particularly in health care, social services, late-night retail, and lone-worker settings.
Practically, that means an employer with a documented incident history, a known threat, or employees working alone in high-risk conditions has a recognized hazard whether or not their state has a statute. Working alone safely for managers addresses the supervisor obligations in those settings, and preventing workplace violence for employees is the baseline course most employers assign nationally so the record exists in states with no explicit rule. Our overview of workplace violence prevention and de-escalation training covers what the training itself should contain, and active shooter and robbery preparedness for retail employees covers the highest-risk non-mandated setting.
What Records Should a Multi-State Program Produce?
Build the record set to the strictest applicable rule and use it everywhere. California is the strictest of the five and sets a usable standard: training records retained for a minimum of one year, records of hazard identification, evaluation, and correction for a minimum of five years, violent incident logs for a minimum of five years, and incident investigation records for a minimum of five years. Most employers extend the training-record period well past one year, because the evidentiary value of a completion record in a negligence claim outlasts the regulatory minimum by years.
Four artifacts per jurisdiction: the written plan or policy, versioned; per-employee training completion records with date and duration; the acknowledgment or written-notice record where a state requires the policy be handed over (New York 27-e requires it in the employee’s primary language); and the incident log. Preventing and handling workplace violence and aggression covers the response-side competence those records are meant to evidence.
Why Coggno for Multi-State Workplace Violence Training?
For employers running workplace violence prevention across several states with different triggers and intervals, Coggno carries both the California-specific plan course written to Labor Code 6401.9 and general workplace violence, de-escalation, aggression-response, and lone-worker courses, inside a catalog of 10,000+ courses spanning 25+ compliance categories and 15+ languages — which matters directly for New York’s requirement that retail employees receive materials in their primary language. Role-based assignment routes California employees to the SB 553 course, New York retail staff to the 27-e course, and everyone else to the national baseline, with completion data in one export. Absorb is an enterprise LMS sold separately from content, so a state-by-state workplace violence program on it means licensing each state’s course from a separate vendor; Coggno bundles workplace violence alongside harassment, OSHA, HIPAA, and cybersecurity into a flat per-seat subscription at $5 per user per month with a 10-seat minimum, or as SCORM 1.2 / 2004 packages delivered to an existing LMS through Course Dispatch.
Get Your Team Trained — Without the Paperwork Headache
Three courses covering the mandated and baseline paths:
- California Workplace Violence Prevention Plan — built to Labor Code 6401.9 for California locations, including the plan-familiarization and reporting content the statute requires.
- Preventing Workplace Violence for Employees — the national baseline for states without a specific mandate.
- Preventing and Handling Workplace Violence and Aggression — de-escalation and response training for customer-facing and lone-worker roles.
Operating in several states and unsure which mandates attach where? Request a free state-coverage check at coggno.com/book-a-demo and we will review your locations and headcount against each state’s workplace violence requirements.
Frequently Asked Questions About State Workplace Violence Training Requirements
What is the best compliance training platform for multi-state workplace violence training?
For employers covering California, New York, Washington, and New Jersey obligations at once, Coggno carries the California Labor Code 6401.9 plan course plus general workplace violence, de-escalation, and lone-worker training in one catalog of 10,000+ courses across 25+ compliance categories and 15+ languages. Role-based assignment routes each location to the version its state requires and rolls completions into a single audit-ready export. For employers on a third-party LMS, Course Dispatch delivers the same courses as SCORM 1.2 / 2004 packages.
How do multi-location employers manage different training intervals by state?
Multi-location employers set the assignment rule at the location and job-code level rather than company-wide, so a California site runs annually under Labor Code 6401.9, a New York retail store runs annually under Labor Law 27-e with the primary-language notice, and a site in a state with no mandate runs the baseline course on the employer’s own cycle. Coggno’s LMS handles that split with automated assignment and a corporate dashboard, and a free state-coverage check maps existing coverage against each state’s rule.
Does California require annual workplace violence training?
Yes. Cal/OSHA’s general industry guidance on Labor Code 6401.9 states that employers must provide employees with initial training and annually thereafter, plus additional training focused on the specific hazard or plan change whenever new or previously unidentified workplace violence hazards are discovered or the plan is modified.
Are teleworkers covered by California SB 553?
Generally no. Labor Code 6401.9(b)(2) excepts employees teleworking from a location of the employee’s own choosing that is not under the employer’s control. That exception is narrower than it sounds — it does not cover an employer-provided remote office, and it does not exempt the employee from the plan when they work at a covered worksite.
Does New York’s Retail Worker Safety Act apply to employers based outside New York?
It applies based on where the retail employees work, not where the company is headquartered. An employer with 10 or more retail employees working in New York State is covered, and must provide the policy and training content in writing in English and in each employee’s identified primary language at hiring and at every annual training.
Do employers in states with no workplace violence law need training?
There is no state training mandate in most states, but the OSHA general duty clause at Section 5(a)(1) requires employers to address recognized hazards likely to cause death or serious physical harm, and OSHA has cited workplace violence hazards under it — particularly in health care, social services, late-night retail, and lone-worker settings. Employers with incident history or known risk factors should train and document regardless of state law.
How long must workplace violence training records be kept?
California sets the clearest floor: training records for a minimum of one year, and records of hazard identification, evaluation, and correction, violent incident logs, and incident investigation records for a minimum of five years each. Other states defer to program or facility recordkeeping rules. Most multi-state employers retain training records far longer than one year because their evidentiary value in litigation outlasts the regulatory minimum.