THE WORKER ADJUSTMENT AND RETRAINING NOTIFICATION (WARN) ACT
Employer’s Guide to Advance Notice of Closings and Layoffs

This guide is intended to present a brief overview describing the principal provisions of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, Public Law 100-379 (29 U.S.C. § 2101 et seq.).

In addition, it provides answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about employer requirements and employee rights under WARN, Web site links to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) Dislocated Worker Web Site, the Department’s Employment Laws Assistance for Workers and Small Businesses, and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act relative to termination benefits.

The guide also includes contact information for the State Rapid Response Dislocated Worker Unit and a National Toll-Free Help Line to assist individuals in locating the nearest One-Stop Career Center.

Material contained in this publication is in the public domain and may be reproduced, fully or partially, without permission of the Federal Government. Source credit is requested but not required.

INTRODUCTION

In our dynamic economy, many companies are streamlining their operations to maintain a competitive position in the marketplace. Although such actions can help your company become more efficient, this may result in the elimination of existing jobs and facilities.

In 1988, Congress passed the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act to provide workers with sufficient time to prepare for the transition between the jobs they currently hold and new jobs. This transition may involve the provision of information about where new jobs may be found, or it may involve providing workers with other employment or retraining opportunities before they lose their jobs.

In order to assist in maintaining the stability of the economy, the U.S. Department of Labor is committed to providing adjustment services to workers and employers and their affected communities. As an employer, understanding your obligations under WARN is important.

Your filing of an official WARN notice is typically the impetus for starting the Rapid Response process to assist the employees who might be affected. This guide provides information on how employers can achieve their business objectives while also protecting their employees.

This guide constitutes a general overview of the law and does not replace the advice of counsel.

Download Employer’s Guide to Advance Notice of Closings and Layoffs, WARN Act

PDF format, 2.5MB, 36Pages. Provided by Employment & Training Administration.

GLOSSARY OF WARN TERMS

Affected Employees:

The term "affected employees" means employees who may reasonably be expected to experience an employment loss as a consequence of a proposed plant closing or mass layoff by their employer. They include individually identifiable employees who will likely lose their jobs because of bumping rights or other factors, to the extent that such individual workers reasonably can be identified at the time notice is required to be given. The category of affected employees includes managerial and supervisory employees but does not include business partners. Consultant or contract employees who have a separate employment relationship with another employer and are paid by that other employer, or who are self-employed, are not "affected employees" of the business to which they are assigned.

Bumping Rights:

Bumping rights are those rights of an employee to displace another employee due to a layoff or other employment action as defined in a collective bargaining agreement, employer policy, or other binding agreement. These rights are often created through a seniority system.

Constructive Discharge:

In general, a constructive discharge is when a worker’s resignation or retirement may be found to be involuntary because the employer has created a hostile or intolerable work environment or has applied other forms of pressure or coercion that forced the employee to quit or resign.

Employer:

The employer is any business enterprise that employs 100 or more full-time workers or 100 or more full- and part-time workers who work at least a combined 4,000 hours a week. Business enterprises include private for-profit and not-for-profit entities as well as governmental or quasi-governmental organizations that engage in business and are separately organized from the regular government.

Employment Loss:

The term "employment loss" means:

1. An employment termination, other than a discharge for cause, voluntary departure, or retirement;
2. A layoff exceeding 6 months; or
3. A reduction in hours of work of individual employees of more than 50% during each month of any 6-month period.

An exception to this definition of employment loss is a case where a worker is reassigned or transferred to employer-sponsored programs, such as retraining or job search activities, and the reassignment does not constitute an involuntary termination or a constructive discharge, and the employee continues to be paid.

Facility and Operating Unit:

A facility refers to a separate building or buildings. An operating unit refers to an organizationally or operationally distinct product, operation, or specific work function within or across facilities at the single site. Whether a specific unit within an employer’s organization is an operating unit depends on such factors as collective bargaining agreements, the employer’s organizational structure, and industry understandings about what constitutes separate work functions.

Mass Layoff:

The term "mass layoff" means a reduction in force that:

1. Does not result from a plant closing; and
2. Results in an employment loss at the single site of employment during any 30-day period for:

• a. At least 50-499 employees if they represent at least 33% of the total active workforce, excluding any part-time employees; or
• b. 500 or more employees (excluding any part-time employees). (In this case, the 33% rule does not apply.)

Part-Time Worker:

A part-time worker is an employee who:

• Averages less than 20 hours per week; or
• Has been employed for fewer than 6 of the last 12 months before the notice is due.

Plant Closing:

A plant closing is 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 at the single site of employment during any 30-day period for 50 or more employees, excluding part-time employees. All of the employment losses do not have to occur within the unit that is shut down. For example, if the 45-person accounting department in a firm is eliminated and, as a result of the accounting department’s closing, five positions in the clerical support staff are eliminated, a covered plant closing has occurred.

Single Site of Employment:

The term "single site of employment" may refer to:

1. A single location or a group of contiguous locations. Groups of structures that form a campus or industrial park or separate facilities across the street from one another may be considered a single site of employment. Also, several single sites of employment may exist within a single building if separate employers conduct activities within the building;

2. Separate buildings or areas within reasonable geographic proximity and share staff and equipment; or

3. For workers who primarily travel:

• a home base from which work is assigned; or
•  a home base to which workers report when:
  - a worker’s primary duties require travel from point to point;
  - the worker’s duties are outstationed; and
  - the worker’s primary duties are outside any of the employer’s regular employment sites.

State Rapid Response Dislocated Worker Unit:

The term "State Rapid Response Dislocated Worker Unit" means a unit designated in each state by the Governor under the Workforce Investment Act.

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