My employer has temporarily closed due to COVID-19. Was I supposed to receive notice under the WARN Act?

Question presented:

My employer has temporarily closed due to COVID-19. Was I supposed to receive notice under the WARN Act?

Employee protections under the WARN Act apply to those who suffer “an employment loss”; a layoff (or furlough) that is “temporary” may not be an employment loss for WARN Actpurposes.

Under the Act, an employee who is laid off does not suffer an employment loss unless the layoff extends beyond 6 months. Therefore, a temporary layoff of 6 months or less does not trigger the need for the employer to issue a WARN Act notice.

However, if the layoff lasts for more than 6 months, employees would be considered to have experienced an employment loss and would have been entitled to notice before the layoff unless it was not reasonably foreseeable at the time of the initial layoff that the layoff would extend beyond 6 months.

If a layoff is extended beyond 6 months due to business circumstances, notice is required when it becomes reasonably foreseeable that the extension is required.

The WARN Act is enforced by private legal action in any U.S. District Court for any district in which the violation is alleged to have occurred or in which the employer transacts business. In such an action an employer may have to prove that it could not foresee the circumstances necessitating an extension ofthe layoff.

Disputes regarding the WARN Act will be determined on a case-by-case basis in such a court proceeding. The role of the U.S. Department of Labor is limited to providing guidance and information about the WARN Act; such guidance is not binding on courts and does not replace the advice of an attorney.