New York Proposes Workplace Opioid Antagonist Regulations

The New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) has proposed regulations implementing New York Labor Law section 27-f, which requires certain employers to make an opioid antagonist, such as naloxone or Narcan, available for workplace first aid or emergency treatment. The proposed rules would require covered employers to determine an adequate supply for each workplace, make the medication quickly accessible, recruit and train employee volunteers, and establish inspection, replacement, and disposal practices before the statute takes effect in December 2026. The rules leave covered employers with substantial discretion as well as several practical questions as they prepare for the law’s December 13, 2026, effective date. 

As previously discussed, New York enacted Labor Law section 27-f in December 2025 and amended it in February 2026. The law applies to employers that are federally required under the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act and related standards to have first aid supplies readily available for the treatment of injured employees. Covered employers must have an opioid antagonist available at the workplace. The statute directed NYSDOL, in coordination with the New York State Department of Health, to issue regulations addressing the appropriate number of opioid antagonists, training, use, and other implementation issues. 

How Many Opioid Antagonists Would Be Required 

The proposal does not establish a fixed minimum or numerical safe harbor. Instead, each covered employer would be required to make a “sufficient number” of opioid antagonists available to allow an administrator to respond quickly to a suspected overdose. In determining sufficiency, employers would consider the workplace’s size and physical layout, the number of people who work at or otherwise access the location for work-related purposes, whether higher-risk populations access the workplace, the nature of the work, and any history of suspected on-site overdoses. This site-specific standard gives employers flexibility, but it also places responsibility on the employer to make and support a reasonable determination for each location. 

Placement, Access, and Communication 

Under the proposed rules, opioid antagonists generally would need to be located in easily accessible areas. The proposal indicates that an administrator ordinarily should not need to travel through several doorways, hallways, or stairways to retrieve the medication. Employers would be required to consider the location of automated external defibrillators and other first aid supplies, the workplace layout, the centrality and visibility of the proposed location, security restrictions, and the risk of tampering, damage, removal, or theft. 

The rules discourage placing the primary supply in a locked room or restricted area. They would, however, permit restricted storage where an employer has a reasonable security- or safety-based concern, provided the employer takes all available measures to ensure quick access. Employers also would need to communicate the location of the supply effectively to employees so that trained administrators of antagonists to know where it is located. Medication would need to remain sealed in the manufacturer’s original packaging and be stored with manufacturer instructions or specified government instructions.

 Where more than one employer shares a workplace, the rules permit employers to satisfy the proposed requirements jointly. The proposal contemplates that participating employers may document their shared compliance plan and make it available to the labor commissioner upon request. Employers using this option should clearly allocate responsibility for purchasing, placement, employee communications, inspections, replacement, training coordination, and documentation. 

Covered employers need to inspect workplace supplies regularly to confirm that opioid antagonists have not expired, been tampered with, or been removed. Employers would be required to replace expired, tampered-with, removed, or missing medication as soon as they become aware, or should have become aware, of the need for replacement. Used medication should be replaced as soon as possible, and used or expired medication would need to be properly disposed of. The proposal does not prescribe a particular inspection frequency or disposal method. 

Training and Employee Volunteers 

The proposal would direct employers to endeavor to recruit employee volunteers to be trained to administer opioid antagonists, subject to applicable collective bargaining agreements and Labor Law requirements. Employers would be directed to seek trained employees to support an expedited response to a suspected overdose. Training would need to be consistent with NY Department of Health guidance and should address recognizing overdose symptoms, administering the medication, actions before and after administration, contacting first responders, and the Good Samaritan protections in Public Health Law section 3000-a. 

The proposal does not require any employee to volunteer or for an employer to compel an employee to administer an opioid antagonist. It also does not clearly establish a safe harbor for an employer that makes reasonable recruitment efforts but receives no volunteers, or specify the number of trained volunteers required for a particular workplace or shift. Those issues may remain important subjects for public comment and final guidance. 

Next Steps

Although the proposal provides a useful implementation framework, it does not establish numerical supply minimums, a small-employer or low-risk exception, an objective method for assessing “near proximity” under the federal first aid standard, a defined compliance pathway if employees do not volunteer, or a detailed recordkeeping system. It also does not expand on the statutory treatment of opioid-antagonist administration as first aid or emergency treatment for purposes of New York’s Good Samaritan protections. Employers should not assume the proposed volunteer-training provisions create an independent duty for any particular employee to administer medication. 

The proposal also does not create an exception based on employer size, industry, perceived workplace risk, or proximity to emergency medical services. Employers therefore will need to analyze coverage under the applicable federal first aid standards rather than assume an office, retail location, or other lower-risk setting falls outside the rule. 

The public comment period is now open, and employers may wish to review the proposal with counsel and consider submitting comments. Littler will continue to monitor the rulemaking process and provide updates as developments occur.