The WARN act

YOUR RIGHTS UNDER WARN

You must receive a written notice 60 days before the date of a mass layoff or plant closing if you meet the conditions discussed in this brochure. If your employer does not give you the required notice, you may be able to seek damages for back pay and benefits for up to 60 days, depending on how many days' notice you actually received.

Please refer to the following information to help you understand when WARN applies to the circumstances of your job loss.

EMPLOYEES PROTECTED BY WARN

You are protected by WARN if your company fits the following profile:

• It is a business with 100 or more full-time workers (not counting workers who have less than 6 months on the job and workers who work less than 20 hours per week), or employs 100 or more workers who work at least a combined 4,000 hours a week, and is a private for-prof-it business, private non-profit organization, or quasi-public entity separately organized from the regular government.

Workers protected by WARN may be hourly or salaried workers, including managerial and supervisory employees.

You may be protected by WARN if your job loss occurs as part of:

• A plant closing (see glossary)-where your employer shuts down a facility or operating unit(see glossary) within a single site of employment (see glossary and FAQs) and lays off at least 50 full-time workers;
• A mass layoff (see glossary)-where your employer lays off either between 50 and 499 full-time workers at a single site of employment and that number is 33% of the number of full-time workers at the single site of employment; or
• A situation where your employer (see glossary) lays off 500 or more full-time workers at a single site of employment.

Some employment actions are covered by WARN. You are entitled to WARN notice if the above conditions apply to your situation and you:

• Are terminated from your employment, but not if you voluntarily quit, retire, or are discharged for cause;
• Are laid off for more than 6 months; or
• Have your regular hours of work reduced by more than half during each month of a 6-month period.

EMPLOYEES NOT PROTECTED BY WARN

You are not protected by the WARN Act if you are considered any of the following:

• 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, or local government employees.

TRANSFERS

Notice is not required in certain cases involving transfers because the transfer is not considered an employment loss (see glossary). If your employer offers you a transfer to a job within a reasonable commuting distance, you are not considered to have suffered an employment loss, whether or not you take the job. If your employer offers you a job outside a reasonable commuting distance (see FAQs), you must accept the job within 30 days, or you are considered to have suffered an employment loss.

There are two other conditions to this transfer rule. One is that the offer of a transfer must be the result of a consolidation or transfer of your employer's business. The other is that the offer must be made before the plant closing or mass layoff occurs. An offer of reassignment to a different site of employment would not be deemed to be a "transfer" if the new job constitutes a constructive discharge (see glossary).

RECEIPT OF NOTICE OF A LAYOFF OR PLANT CLOSING

With some exceptions described later, you must receive a written notice 60 calendar days before the layoff or plant closing. You are entitled to receive this notice even if you are a part-time worker (see glossary and FAQs) or you work at another site and will lose your job due to this layoff or plant closing.

WHAT THE NOTICE MUST CONTAIN

The notice you receive from your employer must include the following information:

• An explanation of whether the layoff or closing is permanent or temporary of 6 months or less;
• The date of layoff or closing and the date of your separation (Your employer has some leeway in predicting the dates on which workers will be separated. Your employer may give you notice that you will be separated within a two-week, or 14-day, period after a certain date. If your employer chooses to use a 14-day period, he/she must give you notice 60 days before the first day of the 14-day period.);
• An explanation of bumping rights (see glossary and FAQs), if they exist; and
• Name and contact information for a person in the company who can provide additional information.

There are two situations in which you may not receive an individual 60-day written notice from your employer even though WARN applies. The first situation is when a union represents you. In that case, your employer must give 60 days' written notice to the union. It is your union's decision how and when to give you notice.

The second situation is when there is a complex system of bumping rights. This situation will not arise often since most complex seniority systems are created under collective bargaining agreements and the union is the party required to be notified. If there is a complex seniority/bumping system and no union is involved, your employer must make a good faith effort to determine who will actually lose their job as the result of the seniority system. However, your employer is not required to predict exactly who will lose a job as a result of a complex bumping system. If your employer cannot exactly predict who will lose their job as a result of a complex bumping system, your employer must give notice to the person whose job is being eliminated even though that person may later bump another worker.

EXTENSION OF NOTICE

Your employer can extend the notice when the date or schedule of dates of a planned plant closing or mass layoff is extended beyond the date or the ending date of any 14-day period announced in the original notice if:

• The mass layoff or plant closing is postponed for less than 60 days, in which case additional notice should be given as soon as possible and should include reference to the earlier notice, the new action date, and the reason for the postponement. The notice does not need to be formal but should be given in a manner that will provide the information to you; or
• The postponement is for 60 days or more, in which case you must receive a new WARN notice. Routine periodic notice, given whether or not a plant closing or mass layoff is impending, and with the intent to evade specific notice as required by WARN, is not acceptable.

NOTICE THAT DOES NOT SATISFY WARN REQUIREMENTS

A verbal announcement at an all-employees' meeting or smaller employees/supervisor staff meeting does not meet the WARN Act requirements. In addition, preprinted notices regularly included in each employee's paycheck or pay envelope or press releases to the media do not meet the requirements.

OTHER ORGANIZATIONS THAT RECEIVE NOTICE

Your employer is required to provide notice not only to the employee or the union but also to the local government's chief elected official where the employment site is located and to the State Rapid Response Dislocated Worker Unit (see glossary) so that planning can begin for early intervention services prior to your layoff to help you become reemployed as quickly as possible.

SALE OF A BUSINESS

WARN applies when all or part of a business is sold. If a covered plant closing or mass layoff occurs, which employer-the seller or buyer-is responsible for giving notice depends on when the event occurs. The seller must give you notice for a covered plant closing or mass layoff that occurs before the sale becomes effective. The buyer must give you notice for a covered plant closing or mass layoff that occurs after the sale becomes effective.

Employees of the seller automatically become employees of the buyer for purposes of WARN. That means that even though there is a technical termination of your employment when you stop working for the seller and start working for the buyer, the technical termination does not trigger WARN. See the FAQ section for additional information on sale of a business and bankruptcy issues.

EXCEPTIONS TO WARN NOTICE REQUIREMENT

There are three exceptions to the full 60-day notice requirement. However, in all cases, notice must be provided as soon as it is practicable. When notice is given in less than the 60-day timeframe, the employer must include a statement of the reason for providing less than 60 days' notice in addition to fulfilling the other information notice requirements. The exceptions to providing the full 60-day notice are as follows:

• A "faltering company" is not required to give notice of a layoff or plant closing when, before the plant closing, it is actively seeking capital or business, which if obtained would avoid or postpone the layoff or closure, and if it reasonably believes that advance notice would hurt its ability to find the capital or business it needs to continue operating;
• A business is not required to give a full 60-day's notice if it could not reasonably foresee business circumstances that led to a layoff or closing at the time that the 60-day notice would have been required, (e.g., 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
• A business is not required to give notice if a layoff or plant closing is the direct result of a natural disaster (i.e., hurricane, flood, earthquake, tornado, storm, drought, or similar effect of nature).

HELP IS AVAILABLE IF YOU FEEL YOUR RIGHTS HAVE BEEN VIOLATED

If you think that you may have a claim under WARN, you should consult an attorney. Generally, where workers are successful in their suits, the employer pays legal fees incurred. However, if your suit is unsuccessful, you may be liable for legal expenses. Under some circumstances, you may qualify for legal services assistance based upon your income. Further information about accessing such legal services can be found through your local Bar Association.

If you are a union member, speak to your local representative or the union's legal department for specific information about possible legal claims.

Although the U.S. Department of Labor and your state have no enforcement role in seeking damages for workers who did not receive adequate notice or received no notice at all, they can assist you in finding a new job or learning about training opportunities that are available to you whether or not you have received a WARN notice. You may also call the National Toll-Free Help Line (1-877-US-2JOBS or TTY: 1-877-889-5627) or link to www.servicelocator.org to find out the most convenient local One-Stop Career Center location. Please refer to the directory at the end of this guide to find out how to contact your state.

WARN ENFORCEMENT

WARN is enforced through the U.S. District Courts. Workers, their representatives, and units of local government may bring individual or class action suits against employers who they believe to be in violation of the Act. The U.S. Department of Labor has no authority or legal standing in any enforcement action and cannot provide specific binding or authoritative advice or guidance with respect to individual situations. The Department does, however, provide assistance in understanding the law and regulations to individuals, firms, and communities.

TO OBTAIN A COPY OF THE WARN ACT AND REGULATIONS

Specific requirements of WARN may be found in the Act itself, Public Law 100-379 (29 U.S.C. 2101, et seq.). The U.S. Department of Labor published final regulations on April 20, 1989, in Volume 54 of the Federal Register at pages 16042 to 16070 (54 FR 16042). The regulations appear at 20 CFR Part 639. The text of this brochure can be seen at the following Web site:

www.doleta.gov/programs/factsht/warn.htm

For more detailed information on WARN, please visit the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment Laws Assistance for Workers and Small Businesses ( elaws) Web site at www.dol.gov/elaws/. This site is currently under development and is expected to be available in 2003.

General questions about the WARN law and regulations may be addressed to:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration

Division of Adults and Dislocated Workers

Room C5325

200 Constitution Avenue, N.W.

Washington, DC 20210

(202) 693-3580

For information regarding how to contact your State Rapid Response Dislocated Worker Unit, call the National Toll-Free Help Line:

1 -877-US-2JOBS

or visit www.doleta.gov/layoff and go to the Employers page.