The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (“WARN”) and its California counterpart (“CalWARN”) were created in the 1980s to help mitigate the economic and societal effects in communities of sudden plant closings or mass layoffs. While the laws are similar, the scenarios governed by the two acts are not identical. The WARN Act applies to employers of 100 or more full-time employees when a plant closing or layoff results in an employment loss at a single employment site during any thirty-day period for fifty or more employees (excluding any part-time employees). In general, CalWARN applies when a plant closing or layoff results in an employment loss for at least 50 employees who have worked at least six of the last twelve months at a site employing at least 75 people.

Under these laws, the covered employers are required to give 60 days’ notice to the affected employees and to certain government officials prior to a plant closing or mass layoff. The Governor recently suspended the bulk of the CalWARN Act’s requirements for layoffs caused by COVID-19, defining the COVID-19 crisis as “business circumstances that were not reasonably foreseeable as of the time the notice would have been required.” The federal WARN Act already includes an exception for unforeseen business circumstances.

Both acts still require employers to give as much notice as reasonably practical and to include specific items in the notices. Employers planning a plant closure or mass layoff should consult with counsel regarding their notice obligations.

Further information about federal WARN and CalWARN can be found at the EDD website: https://www.edd.ca.gov/Jobs_and_Training/Layoff_Services_WARN.htm