11-18-2025
The New York State Legislature added a new section to its State Finance Law (SFL) that applies to employers submitting competitive bids to the state or any of its public departments or agencies, as required by statute. These employers must certify that they have a “Gender-Based Violence and the Workplace” policy in effect to be eligible for consideration. Employers bidding on contracts that are not required to be competitive are exempt from this certification, however, departments, agencies, or officials may have discretion and choose to require the policy certification. Employers unable to comply with the requirement must submit a statement outlining that inability and include an explanation in order to pursue a bid. The new section went into effect in early November.
New York’s Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence published a model policy for employers to use. This model shares the state’s rationale for implementing the requirement. It states that domestic violence perpetrators often try to disrupt survivors’ employment opportunities through a variety of means, forcing them to miss work or harassing them while at work. “Gender-based violence may compromise the safety of victims, co-workers, and clients in the workplace.” It can also lead to lost productivity, increased health-care costs, and employee turnover.
Gender-violence policies must be clearly displayed and easy for employees to access in the workplace. Employers must display the state’s Domestic and Sexual Violence Hotline and refer employee-survivors to services. Once drafted, the policy must be distributed to all employees, board members, and directors annually, as well as upon hire. Employers are permitted to tailor their policies to fit their needs, while continuing to require protections for workplace retaliation and other existing statutes
Employers should continue to monitor any similar changing policies in New York, or their respective states of business.