Certain employers cannot lay off employees without giving advance notice or paying them for a period of time.
In 1989, the government enacted WARN – the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. WARN protects workers by requiring employers to provide sixty days advance notice of certain mass layoffs. In general, employers are subject to WARN if they have a 100 or more employees, not counting employees who have worked less than six months in the last twelve months, and not counting employees who work an average of less than twenty hours a week.
An employer subject to WARN must give sixty days’ advance notice if an employee site will be shut down and the shutdown will result in employment loss for fifty or more employees during any thirty-day period. This is commonly known as a “plant closing”, although it does not merely apply to manufacturing sites.
Alternatively, an employer subject to WARN must give notice if there is to be a “mass layoff” which will result in an employment loss at the employment site during any thirty-day period for 500 or more employees or a lay off 50 to 499 employees if the number to be laid off makes up at least 33% of the employer’s active workforce.
In either case, employees who have worked less than six months in the last twelve months or employees who work less than twenty hours a week do not count in determining whether an employer is subject to WARN.
WARN also applies in the case of a sale of a business. However, there is an additional twist. Not only is the seller responsible for providing notice of the “plant closing” or “mass layoff”, but if the buyer of the business would anticipate a “plant closing” or “mass layoff”, such buyer must also give the sixty-day notice. As an alternative to giving sixty days notice, if a company is subject to WARN, the employer can pay the laid-off employees for those sixty days.
By Guest Blogger Mary Drury, Esq.
Hon. Jay Young (Ret.) is a retired judicial officer with decades of experience presiding over complex civil litigation matters. Following a distinguished career on the bench, Judge Young now serves as a mediator, arbitrator, and court‑appointed special master, and discovery referee. Judge Young brings a disciplined, impartial, and results‑oriented approach to dispute resolution. Judge Young is based in Nevada and accepts appointments statewide and nationally, subject to agreement or court order. He can be reached at 855.777.4557 or info@armadr.com
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