Book Description

As a result of lowering the size threshold for employer coverage under the act from 100 employees (excluding part-timers) and lowering the size threshold for employment losses from at least 50 employees (excluding part-timers), 7 the bills would expand the scope of the WARN Act. [...] The Secretary is also directed to maintain on the department's website a guide of benefits and services of which affected workers might avail themselves and immediately transmit the guide to employers who provide advance notice to the Secretary. [...] If taken together the number of terminated workers exceeds one of the thresholds during any 90-day period, the action is considered a plant closing or mass layoff unless the employer proves that the employment losses are due to "separate and distinct actions and causes and are not an attempt by the employer to evade the requirements of" the act. [...] If an employer calls a layoff that is not expected to meet the statute's six-month threshold for providing advance notice and the employer subsequently extends the layoff beyond six months, an employment loss will have occurred unless the extension was due to "business circumstances not reasonably foreseeable at the time of the initial layoff." The employer must give employees advance notice when [...] As in the case of multiple layoffs of small groups of employees, this provision is intended to 9 Actively working employees are persons currently on the employer's payroll and in pay status at the time of the mass layoff.