A
Guide to Advance Notice of Closings and Layoffs
The
Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act
The
Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN)
was enacted on August 4, 1988 and became effective on
February 4, 1989.
General
Provisions
WARN
offers protection to workers, their families and communities
by requiring employers to provide notice 60 days in advance
of covered plant closings and covered mass layoffs. This
notice must be provided to either affected workers or
their representatives (e.g., a labor union); to the state
dislocated worker unit; and to the appropriate unit of
local government.
Employer
Coverage 
In general, employers are covered by WARN
if they have 100 or more employees not counting employees
who have worked less than 6 months in the last 12 months
and not counting employees who work an average of less
than 20 hours a week. Private, for-profit employers and
private, nonprofit employers are covered, as are public
and quasi-public entities which operate in a commercial
context and are separately organized from the regular
government. Regular federal, state and local government
entities that provide public services are not covered.
Employee
Coverage
Employees
entitled to notice under WARN include hourly and salaried
workers as well as managerial and supervisory employees.
Business partners are not entitled to notice.
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