The New York HERO Act was signed on Wednesday night by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, but it came with some caveats.

This act will require businesses to have enforceable COVID-19-related safety protocols in place.

Many of these protocols are already being implemented due to the governor's executive orders. This includes time for hand washing, social distancing and access to personal protective equipment.

However, this law will make these standards permanent.

“A lot of the steps that are required in this piece of legislation are already being taken by some employers,” Assemblywoman Karines Reyes explained. “We just want to have the ability to enforce these standards and to have clarity, so they know what they have to do in order to protect themselves and protect their workers.”

This bill will apply to all private sector businesses and gives employees the right to sue for violations.  

Businesses with 10 or more employees will also be permitted to set up work place safety committees.

Yet, Frank Kerbein, director of human resources with the Business Council of New York State, said there is very little guidance in the bill on how these committees are to be comprised.

“Now we have some issues that I think are unresolvable, especially for employers who are small and don't have an HR person on staff,” Kerbein explained. “They're going to stumble into unintentional noncompliance with federal law, even with the state law, and that's a cost.”

Cuomo’s signature on the bill came with a memo and an agreement with the Legislature on a few technical changes.

Lawmakers and the Department of Labor will be working to provide more guidance on when these protocols will have to be rolled out.

These changes will also give businesses 30 days to fix violations before lawsuits can be filed.  

Kerbein said businesses have no problem with implementing many of these safety standards, but are worried about the day-to-day administrative costs, placing a financial strain on businesses already trying to recover from the pandemic.

“The vast majority of employers in New York have less than 50 employees,” Kerbein said. “They don't have an HR guy. It's the owner and it's the accountant who's doing this. It's so hard to comply with this myriad of laws that you get this unintentional noncompliance and that's the cost.”

Deputy Senate Majority Leader Mike Gianaris disagreed that cost should keep businesses from implementing these safety protocols.  

“It's just not a good argument that it may cost them some money to make sure everybody is safe,” Sen. Gianaris said. “I would also add that we can walk and chew gum at the same time. We just passed the state budget that had $1 billion in state money for small business relief, so we are very conscious of the struggles of small businesses over the last year.”

The Legislature is expected to pass those amendments with the technical changes before the end of the legislative year in June.

The business council estimates that the Department of Labor will come up with these safety standards by July 4. Businesses will have 30 days to adopt the plan and then another 30 days to communicate the plan to employees, most likely by September.