Labor Standards - vacation, sick, retirement, property

What is the name of your state? NY

I need to find out the following info for New York State (I was going to post this in the Regional forum but I figured more people might know about this here).

I need to know the standards for:

-Vacation time off (what is the minimum that can be given?)
-Sick days (what is the minimum that can be given?)
-Retirement (how to ask an employee if he is considering retirement without discrimination and how to set up a retirement program assuming we don't have one yet? where do I start?)
-Personal Property (if a employee is terminated and leaves his tools in your office for 3 years and after those 3 years he attempts to obtain them, can he have a valid lawsuit against you for loss of property?)

Assume there is no union.

Everything I find seems to be whether employees should be compensated for vacation time and sick days, nothing regarding whether they can have them in the first place.

Thanks.

1. Minimum vacation time required = 0

2. Minimum sick time required = 0

3. Ask the employee, "Are you planning to retire this year? We are just asking as we are planning our recruiting budget and need to know if we should include recruiting a replacement for you." This is a perfectly legal question. That doesn't mean it isn't going to insult the employee. Maybe you should rethink why you feel you need to know. It also doesn't mean the employee won't tell you, "No. I'm planning to stay this year," and then later decide to retire in June.

If you don't have a retirement plan, and want to implement one, I suggest you contact a good benefits consultant in your area and they can help you set it up.

4. I don't know about this in your state. It might depend on how much the tools are worth, the statute of limitations in your state, and what effort you made to contact the employee to come get his stuff. You'll be best served by checking with your attorney on that one.