Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act
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The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act), a law in the United States, protects employees, their families, and communities by requiring most employers with 100 or more employees to provide notification 60 calendar days in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs.
Employees entitled to notice under WARN include managers and supervisors, as well as hourly and salaried workers. WARN requires that notice also be given to employees' representatives (e.g. a union), the local chief elected official (e.g. the mayor), and the state dislocated worker unit (usually part of a state department of labor).
Advance notice gives workers and their families some transition time to adjust to the prospective loss of employment, to seek and obtain other jobs, and, if necessary, to enter skill training or retraining that will allow these workers to compete successfully in the job market.
WARN Act issues often arise when employers are acquired by other companies.
[edit] Who is Covered?
Generally, WARN covers employers with 100 or more employees, not counting those who have worked less than six months in the last 12 months and those who work an average of less than 20 hours a week. Employees entitled to advance notice under WARN include managers and supervisors as well as hourly and salaried workers.
Employees not protected under WARN include
• Strikers, or workers who have been locked out in a labor dispute;
• Workers working on temporary projects or facilities of the business who clearly understand the temporary nature of the work when hired;
• Business partners, consultants, or contract employees assigned to the business but who have a separate employment relationship with another employer and are paid by that other employer, or who are self-employed; and
• Regular federal, state, and local government employees.
[edit] Exceptions to WARN
WARN is not triggered when a covered employer:
• Closes a temporary facility or completes a temporary project, and the employees were hired with the clear understanding that their employment would end with the closing of the facility or the completion of the project; or
• Closes a facility or operating unit due to a strike or lockout and the closing is not intended to evade the purposes of the WARN Act.
WARN is also not triggered when the following various thresholds for coverage are not met:
• If a plant closing or mass layoff results in fewer than 50 people losing their jobs at a single site of employment;
• If 50-499 workers lose their jobs and that number is less than 33% of the employer’s total active workforce at a single site;
• If a layoff is for 6 months or less; or
• If work hours are not reduced 50% in each month of any 6-month period.
There are three exceptions to the full 60-day notice requirement. However, notice must be provided as soon as is practicable even when these exceptions apply, and the employer must provide a statement of the reason for reducing the notice requirement in addition to fulfilling other notice information requirements. The exceptions are as follows:
• Faltering company: When, before a plant closing, a company is actively seeking capital or business and reasonably in good faith believes that advance notice would preclude its ability to obtain such capital or business, and this new capital or business would allow the employer to avoid or postpone a shutdown for a reasonable period;
• Unforeseeable business circumstances: When the closing or mass layoff is caused by business circumstances that were not reasonably foreseeable at the time that 60-day notice would have been required (i.e., a business circumstance that is caused by some sudden, dramatic, and unexpected action or conditions outside the employer's control, like the unexpected cancellation of a major order); or
• Natural disaster: When a plant closing or mass layoff is the direct result of a natural disaster such as a flood, earthquake, drought, storm, tidal wave, or similar effects of nature. In this case, notice may be given after the event.
