Employees: Who is Covered Under the Warn Act

We invite your attention to our disclaimer.

You are protected by WARN if your company fits the following profile:

  • It is a business with 100 or more full-time workers (not counting work­ers who have less than 6 months on the job and workers who work less than 20 hours per week), or employs 100 or more workers who work at least a combined 4,000 hours a week, and is a private for-prof­it business, private non-profit organization, or quasi-public entity sep­arately organized from the regular government.


Workers protected by WARN may be hourly or salaried workers, including managerial and supervisory employees.


You may be protected by WARN if your job loss occurs as part of:

  • A plant closing (see glossary)—where your employer shuts down a facility or operating unit (see glossary) within a single site of employ­ment (see glossary and FAQs) and lays off at least 50 full-time workers;

  • A mass layoff (see glossary)—where your employer lays off either between 50 and 499 full-time workers at a single site of employment and that number is 33% of the number of full-time workers at the sin­gle site of employment; or


A situation where your employer (see glossary) lays off 500 or more full-time workers at a single site of employment.


Some employment actions are covered by WARN. You are entitled to WARN notice if the above conditions apply to your situation and you:

  • Are terminated from your employment, but not if you voluntarily quit, retire, or are discharged for cause;
  • Are laid off for more than 6 months; or
  • Have your regular hours of work reduced by more than half during each month of a 6-month period.

EMPLOYEES NOT PROTECTED BY WARN

You are not protected by the WARN Act if you are considered any of the fol­lowing:

  • Strikers, or workers who have been locked out in a labor dispute;

  • Workers working on temporary projects or facilities of the business who clearly understand the temporary nature of the work when hired;

  • Business partners, consultants, or contract employees assigned to the business but who have a separate employment relationship with another employer and are paid by that other employer, or who are self­ employed; and Regular federal, state, or local government employees.
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