Opinion ID: 785066
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: WARN Act Overview

Text: The purpose of the WARN Act is to provide: 12 protection to workers, their families and communities by requiring employers to provide notification 60 calendar days in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs. Advance notice provides workers and their families some transition time to adjust to the prospective loss of employment, to seek and obtain alternative jobs and, if necessary, to enter skill training or retraining that will allow these workers to successfully compete in the job market. 13 20 C.F.R. § 639.1. Employers with 100 or more full-time employees are barred from ordering a plant closing or mass layoff until the end of a 60-day period after the employer serves written notice of such an order to each representative of the affected employees as of the time of the notice or, if there is no such representative at that time, to each affected employee. 29 U.S.C. § 2101(a), 2102(a)(1). 14 Under the WARN Act, the term mass layoff means a reduction in force which: 15 (A) is not the result of a plant closing; and 16 (B) results in an employment loss at the single site of employment during any 30 day period for — 17 (I) (I) at least 33 percent of the employees (excluding any part-time employees); and (II) at least 50 employees (excluding any part-time employees); or 18 (ii) at least 500 employees (excluding any part-time employees) 19 Id. § 2101(a)(3). These figures are calculated from the snap-shot date of the last date upon which the notice would be required to be given, in this case, July 27, 1998, sixty days before September 25, 1998, the date of the layoff. See 20 C.F.R. § 639.5(a)(2). On July 27, 1998, DLI and BRC had more than 100 employees combined, while alone, each company had fewer than 100 employees. 20