The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) provides for mandatory notices of plant closings and mass layoffs.
Who is Covered
An employer is covered by WARN if either of the following is true:
- Has 100 or more full-time employees, not including part-time employees (those who work fewer than 20 hours a week or fewer than 6 months a year), or
- Has 100 or more employees who regularly work a total of 4,000 nonovertime hours a week.
Regular federal, state and local government entities, which provide public services, are not covered. Employees entitled to notice under WARN include hourly and salaried workers, as well as managerial and supervisory employees.
Basic Provisions/Requirements
WARN provides protection to workers, their families and communities by requiring employers to provide notification 60 calendar days in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs. Advance notice provides workers and their families some transition time to adjust to the prospective loss of employment, to see and obtain alternative jobs and, if necessary, to enter skill training or retraining that will allow these workers to successfully compete in the job market. WARN also provides for notice to State dislocated worker units so that dislocated worker assistance can be promptly provided.
A covered plant closing occurs when a facility or operating unit is shut down for more than six (6) months, or when 50 or more employees lose their jobs during any 30-day period at the single site of employment. A covered mass layoff occurs when a layoff of six (6) months or longer affects 500 or more workers, or 33 percent or more of the employer’s workforce when the layoffs affect between 50 and 499 workers. The number of affected workers is the total number laid off during a 30-day, or in some cases a 90-day period.
WARN does not apply to the closing of temporary facilities or the completion of an activity when the workers were hired only for the duration of that activity. WARN also provides for less than 60 days notice when the layoffs were the result of the closing of a faltering company, unforeseeable business circumstances, or a natural disaster.
