Legal Definitions - Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, commonly known as the WARN Act, is a federal law in the United States. Its primary purpose is to protect workers, their families, and communities by requiring certain employers to provide advance notice of significant layoffs or plant closures.

Specifically, the WARN Act mandates that employers with 100 or more full-time employees must give at least 60 days' written notice before:

• A plant closing, which involves the permanent or temporary shutdown of a single site of employment, or one or more facilities or operating units within a single site of employment, if the shutdown results in an employment loss for 50 or more employees during any 30-day period.
• A mass layoff, which is a reduction in force that is not the result of a plant closing and results in an employment loss at a single site of employment for either 500 or more employees, or for 50-499 employees if they constitute at least 33% of the employer's active workforce.

This notice must be provided to the affected employees (or their union representatives), the state's dislocated worker unit, and the chief elected official of the unit of local government where the closing or layoff is to occur. The goal is to give employees time to seek new jobs or retraining and to allow state and local agencies to prepare assistance for the affected workers.

Examples of the WARN Act in action:

• Example 1: Manufacturing Plant Closure

  A large automotive parts manufacturer, employing 700 people at its main assembly plant, decides to permanently shut down the facility due to a shift in market demand. Under the WARN Act, the company would be legally obligated to issue a 60-day advance notice to all 700 employees, the state's dislocated worker unit, and the mayor's office in the city where the plant is located. This allows the employees two months to search for new employment or enroll in job training programs, and it gives local government and state agencies time to coordinate support services for the displaced workforce.

• Example 2: Tech Company Mass Layoff

  A prominent software development firm, with 1,200 employees at its headquarters, announces a restructuring that will eliminate 300 positions across various departments. Since this constitutes a mass layoff affecting more than 500 employees (or 33% of the workforce, if it were between 50-499), the WARN Act requires the company to provide 60 days' notice to the 300 affected employees. This advance warning allows those employees to prepare for their job loss, update their resumes, and begin networking for new opportunities before their last day of employment.

• Example 3: Retail Chain Store Closures

  A national retail chain decides to close five of its large department stores within a single metropolitan area, resulting in the termination of 250 employees across those locations (50 employees at each store). If each store closure meets the WARN Act's threshold for a plant closing (50 or more employees at a single site), or if the closures are considered part of a single mass layoff event, the company must issue 60 days' advance notice to the affected employees at each store and to the appropriate state and local government officials. This ensures that the retail workers have time to find alternative employment in the service sector or explore other career paths.