The Federal WARN Act helps ensure advance notice in cases of qualified plant closings and mass layoffs. WARN protects employees, their families, and communities by requiring employers to give a 60-day notice to the affected employees and both state and local representatives before a plant closing or mass layoff. The U.S. Department of Labor has compliance assistance materials to help workers and employers understand their rights and responsibilities under the provisions of WARN.
California’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act expands on the requirements of the federal WARN Act and provides protection to employees, their families and communities by requiring employers to give affected employees and other state and local representatives notice 60 days in advance of a plant closing or mass layoff. Advance notice provides employees and their families time to transition and adjust to the prospective loss of employment, time to seek alternative jobs and, if necessary, time to obtain skills training or retraining to successfully compete in the job market.
Warntracker.com publishes a list of companies that have given a WARN notice in 2023.
Table of Contents
Federal Warn Act vs California Warn Act
| Category |
Federal WARN |
California WARN |
|---|---|---|
Covered Employers |
Applicable only to employers with 100 or more full-time employees who must have been employed for at least 6 months of the 12 months preceding the date of required notice in order to be counted. (29 USC 2101 and 20 CFR 639.3) |
Applicable to a “covered establishment” that employs or has employed in the preceding 12 months, 75 or more full and part-time employees. As under the federal WARN, employees must have been employed for at least 6 months of the 12 months preceding the date of required notice in order to be counted. [California Labor Code Section 1400 (a) and (h)] |
Plant Closing or Layoff Requiring Notice |
Plant closings involving 50 or more employees during a 30-day period. Layoffs within a 30-day period involving 50 to 499 full-time employees constituting at least 33% of the full-time workforce at a single site of employment. Layoffs of 500 or more are covered regardless of percentage of workforce. (29 USC, et seq., 2101 and 20 CFR 639.3) |
Plant closure affecting any amount of employees. Layoff of 50 or more employees within a 30-day period regardless of % of workforce. Relocation of at least 100 miles affecting any amount of employees. [California Labor Code Section 1400 (d)-(f)] |
Legal Jurisdiction |
Enforcement of WARN requirements through United States district courts. The court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party a reasonable attorney’s fee as part of the costs. (29 USC 2101, et seq) |
Suit may be brought in “any court of competent jurisdiction”. The court may award reasonable attorney’s fees as part of costs to any prevailing plaintiff. The California WARN law is in the Labor Code and the authority to investigate through the examination of books and records is delegated to the Labor Commissioner. (California Labor Code Sections 1404 and 1406) |
Employer Liability |
An employer who violates the WARN provisions is liable to each employee for an amount equal to back pay and benefits for the period of the violation, up to 60 days, but no more than half the number of days the employee was employed by the employer. [29 USC; 2104 (a)]. | A possible civil penalty of $500 a day for each day of violation. Employees may receive back pay to be paid at employee’s final rate or 3 year average rate of compensation, whichever is higher. In addition, employer is liable for cost of any medical expenses incurred by employees that would have been covered under an employee benefit plan. The employer is liable for period of violation up to 60 days or one-half the number of days the employee was employed whichever period is smaller. (California Labor Code Section 1403) |
Notice Requirements |
An Employer must provide written notice 60-days prior to a plant closing or mass layoff to employees or their representative, the State dislocated worker unit (the Employment Development Department, Workforce Services Division in California), and the chief elected official of local government within which such closing or layoff is to occur. (29 USC, 2102; 20 CFR 639.5) |
An employer must give notice 60-days prior to a plant closing, layoff or relocation. In addition to the notifications required under federal WARN, notice must also be given to the Local Workforce Development Board, and the chief elected official of each city and county government within which the termination, relocation or mass layoff occurs. (California Labor Code Section 1401) |
Exceptions and Exemptions to Notice Requirements |
Regular Federal, State, local and federally recognized Indian tribal governments are not covered. (29 USC, 2102 (a); 20 CFR 639.3)The following situations are exempt from notice: There is an offer to transfer employee to a different site within a reasonable commuting distance. The closure is due to unforeseeable business circumstances, a natural disaster. The closing or layoff constitutes a strike or constitutes a lockout not intended to evade the requirement of this chapter. |
California WARN does not apply when the closing or layoff is the result of the completion of a particular project or undertaking of an employer subject to Wage Orders 11, 12 or 16, regulating the Motion Picture Industry, or Construction, Drilling, Logging and Mining Industries, and the employees were hired with the understanding that their employment was limited to the duration of that project or undertaking. [California Labor Code Section 1400 (g)]The notice requirements do not apply to employees involved in seasonal employment where the employees were hired with the understanding that their employment was seasonal and temporary. [California Labor Code Section 1400 (g)(2)] Notice is not required if a mass layoff, relocation or plant closure is necessitated by a physical calamity or act of war. Notice of a relocation or termination is not required where, under multiple and specific conditions, the employer submits documents to the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) and the DIR determines that the employer was actively seeking capital or business, and a WARN notice would have precluded the employer from obtaining the capital or business. (California Labor Code Section 1402.5) This exception does not apply to notice of a mass layoff as defined in California Labor Code Section 1400 (d). |
| Category |
Federal WARN |
California WARN |
|---|---|---|
Definitions |
(a) DefinitionsAs used in this chapter— (1) the term “employer” means any business enterprise that employs— (A) 100 or more employees, excluding part-time employees; or (B) 100 or more employees who in the aggregate work at least 4,000 hours per week (exclusive of hours of overtime); (2) the term “plant closing” means the permanent or temporary shutdown of a single site of employment, or one or more facilities or operating units within a single site of employment, if the shutdown results in an employment loss at the single site of employment during any 30-day period for 50 or more employees excluding any part-time employees; (3) the term “mass layoff” means a reduction in force which— (A) is not the result of a plant closing; and (B) results in an employment loss at the single site of employment during any 30-day period for— (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 (ii) at least 500 employees (excluding any part-time employees); (4) the term “representative” means an exclusive representative of employees within the meaning of section 159(a) or 158(f) of this title or section 152 of title 45; (5) the term “affected employees” means employees who may reasonably be expected to experience an employment loss as a consequence of a proposed plant closing or mass layoff by their employer; (6) subject to subsection (b), the term “employment loss” means (A) an employment termination, other than a discharge for cause, voluntary departure, or retirement, (B) a layoff exceeding 6 months, or (C) a reduction in hours of work of more than 50 percent during each month of any 6-month period; (7) the term “unit of local government” means any general purpose political subdivision of a State which has the power to levy taxes and spend funds, as well as general corporate and police powers; and (8) the term “part-time employee” means an employee who is employed for an average of fewer than 20 hours per week or who has been employed for fewer than 6 of the 12 months preceding the date on which notice is required. (b) Exclusions from definition of employment loss (1) In the case of a sale of part or all of an employer’s business, the seller shall be responsible for providing notice for any plant closing or mass layoff in accordance with section 2102 of this title, up to and including the effective date of the sale. After the effective date of the sale of part or all of an employer’s business, the purchaser shall be responsible for providing notice for any plant closing or mass layoff in accordance with section 2102 of this title. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, any person who is an employee of the seller (other than a part-time employee) as of the effective date of the sale shall be considered an employee of the purchaser immediately after the effective date of the sale. (2) Notwithstanding subsection (a)(6), an employee may not be considered to have experienced an employment loss if the closing or layoff is the result of the relocation or consolidation of part or all of the employer’s business and, prior to the closing or layoff— (A) the employer offers to transfer the employee to a different site of employment within a reasonable commuting distance with no more than a 6-month break in employment; or (B) the employer offers to transfer the employee to any other site of employment regardless of distance with no more than a 6-month break in employment, and the employee accepts within 30 days of the offer or of the closing or layoff, whichever is later. |
The definitions set forth in this section shall govern the construction and meaning of the terms used in this chapter:
(a) “Covered establishment” means any industrial or commercial facility or part thereof that employs, or has employed within the preceding 12 months, 75 or more persons. (b) “Employer” means any person, as defined by Section 18, who directly or indirectly owns and operates a covered establishment. A parent corporation is an employer as to any covered establishment directly owned and operated by its corporate subsidiary. (c) “Layoff” means a separation from a position for lack of funds or lack of work. (d) “Mass layoff” means a layoff during any 30-day period of 50 or more employees at a covered establishment. (e) “Relocation” means the removal of all or substantially all of the industrial or commercial operations in a covered establishment to a different location 100 miles or more away. (f) “Termination” means the cessation or substantial cessation of industrial or commercial operations in a covered establishment. (g) (1) This chapter does not apply where the closing or layoff is the result of the completion of a particular project or undertaking of an employer subject to Wage Order 11, regulating the Broadcasting Industry, Wage Order 12, regulating the Motion Picture Industry, or Wage Order 16, regulating Certain On-Site Occupations in the Construction, Drilling, Logging and Mining Industries, of the Industrial Welfare Commission, and the employees were hired with the understanding that their employment was limited to the duration of that project or undertaking. (2) This chapter does not apply to employees who are employed in seasonal employment where the employees were hired with the understanding that their employment was seasonal and temporary. (h) “Employee” means a person employed by an employer for at least 6 months of the 12 months preceding the date on which notice is required. (Added by Stats. 2002, Ch. 780, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2003.) |
Notice Required |
(a) Notice to employees, State dislocated worker units, and local governmentsAn employer shall not order a plant closing or mass layoff until the end of a 60-day period after the employer serves written notice of such an order— (1) 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; and (2) to the State or entity designated by the State to carry out rapid response activities under section 3174(a)(2)(A) of this title, and the chief elected official of the unit of local government within which such closing or layoff is to occur. If there is more than one such unit, the unit of local government which the employer shall notify is the unit of local government to which the employer pays the highest taxes for the year preceding the year for which the determination is made. (b) Reduction of notification period (1) An employer may order the shutdown of a single site of employment before the conclusion of the 60-day period if as of the time that notice would have been required the employer was actively seeking capital or business which, if obtained, would have enabled the employer to avoid or postpone the shutdown and the employer reasonably and in good faith believed that giving the notice required would have precluded the employer from obtaining the needed capital or business. (2) (A) An employer may order a plant closing or mass layoff before the conclusion of the 60-day period if the closing or mass layoff is caused by business circumstances that were not reasonably foreseeable as of the time that notice would have been required. For purposes of this section, in determining whether a plant closing or mass layoff has occurred or will occur, employment losses for 2 or more groups at a single site of employment, each of which is less than the minimum number of employees specified in section 2101(a)(2) or (3) of this title but which in the aggregate exceed that minimum number, and which occur within any 90-day period shall be considered to be a plant closing or mass layoff unless the employer demonstrates that the employment losses are the result of separate and distinct actions and causes and are not an attempt by the employer to evade the requirements of this chapter. |
(a) An employer may not order a mass layoff, relocation, or termination at a covered establishment unless, 60 days before the order takes effect, the employer gives written notice of the order to the following:
(1) The employees of the covered establishment affected by the order. (2) The Employment Development Department, the local workforce investment board, and the chief elected official of each city and county government within which the termination, relocation, or mass layoff occurs. (b) An employer required to give notice of any mass layoff, relocation, or termination under this chapter shall include in its notice the elements required by the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (29 U.S.C. Sec. 2101 et seq.). (c) Notwithstanding the requirements of subdivision (a), an employer is not required to provide notice if a mass layoff, relocation, or termination is necessitated by a physical calamity or act of war. (Added by Stats. 2002, Ch. 780, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2003.) |
Notice not required |
(B) No notice under this chapter shall be required if the plant closing or mass layoff is due to any form of natural disaster, such as a flood, earthquake, or the drought currently ravaging the farmlands of the United States. (3) An employer relying on this subsection shall give as much notice as is practicable and at that time shall give a brief statement of the basis for reducing the notification period. (c) Extension of layoff periodA layoff of more than 6 months which, at its outset, was announced to be a layoff of 6 months or less, shall be treated as an employment loss under this chapter unless— (1) the extension beyond 6 months is caused by business circumstances (including unforeseeable changes in price or cost) not reasonably foreseeable at the time of the initial layoff; and (2) notice is given at the time it becomes reasonably foreseeable that the extension beyond 6 months will be required. (d) Determinations with respect to employment loss This chapter shall not apply to a plant closing or mass layoff if— |
(a) An employer is not required to comply with the notice requirement contained in subdivision (a) of Section 1401 if the department determines that all of the following conditions exist:
(1) As of the time that notice would have been required, the employer was actively seeking capital or business. (2) The capital or business sought, if obtained, would have enabled the employer to avoid or postpone the relocation or termination. (3) The employer reasonably and in good faith believed that giving the notice required by subdivision (a) of Section 1401 would have precluded the employer from obtaining the needed capital or business. (b) The department may not determine that the employer was actively seeking capital or business under subdivision (a) unless the employer provides the department with both of the following: (1) A written record consisting of all documents relevant to the determination of whether the employer was actively seeking capital or business, as specified by the department. (2) An affidavit verifying the contents of the documents contained in the record. (c) The affidavit provided to the department pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (b) shall contain a declaration signed under penalty of perjury stating that the affidavit and the contents of the documents contained in the record submitted pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (b) are true and correct. (d) This section does not apply to notice of a mass layoff as defined by subdivision (d) of Section 1400. |
Liabilities |
(a) Civil actions against employers (1) Any employer who orders a plant closing or mass layoff in violation of section 2102 of this title shall be liable to each aggrieved employee who suffers an employment loss as a result of such closing or layoff for— (A) back pay for each day of violation at a rate of compensation not less than the higher of— (i) the average regular rate received by such employee during the last 3 years of the employee’s employment; or (ii) the final regular rate received by such employee; and (B) benefits under an employee benefit plan described in section 1002(3) of this title, including the cost of medical expenses incurred during the employment loss which would have been covered under an employee benefit plan if the employment loss had not occurred. Such liability shall be calculated for the period of the violation, up to a maximum of 60 days, but in no event for more than one-half the number of days the employee was employed by the employer. (2) The amount for which an employer is liable under paragraph (1) shall be reduced by— (A) any wages paid by the employer to the employee for the period of the violation; (B) any voluntary and unconditional payment by the employer to the employee that is not required by any legal obligation; and (C) any payment by the employer to a third party or trustee (such as premiums for health benefits or payments to a defined contribution pension plan) on behalf of and attributable to the employee for the period of the violation. In addition, any liability incurred under paragraph (1) with respect to a defined benefit pension plan may be reduced by crediting the employee with service for all purposes under such a plan for the period of the violation. (3) Any employer who violates the provisions of section 2102 of this title with respect to a unit of local government shall be subject to a civil penalty of not more than $500 for each day of such violation, except that such penalty shall not apply if the employer pays to each aggrieved employee the amount for which the employer is liable to that employee within 3 weeks from the date the employer orders the shutdown or layoff. (4) If an employer which has violated this chapter proves to the satisfaction of the court that the act or omission that violated this chapter was in good faith and that the employer had reasonable grounds for believing that the act or omission was not a violation of this chapter the court may, in its discretion, reduce the amount of the liability or penalty provided for in this section. (5) A person seeking to enforce such liability, including a representative of employees or a unit of local government aggrieved under paragraph (1) or (3), may sue either for such person or for other persons similarly situated, or both, in any district court of the United States for any district in which the violation is alleged to have occurred, or in which the employer transacts business. (6) In any such suit, the court, in its discretion, may allow the prevailing party a reasonable attorney’s fee as part of the costs. (7) For purposes of this subsection, the term,[1] “aggrieved employee” means an employee who has worked for the employer ordering the plant closing or mass layoff and who, as a result of the failure by the employer to comply with section 2102 of this title, did not receive timely notice either directly or through his or her representative as required by section 2102 of this title. (b) Exclusivity of remedies The remedies provided for in this section shall be the exclusive remedies for any violation of this chapter. Under this chapter, a Federal court shall not have authority to enjoin a plant closing or mass layoff. |
(a) An employer who fails to give notice as required by paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section 1401 before ordering a mass layoff, relocation, or termination is liable to each employee entitled to notice who lost his or her employment for:
(1) Back pay at the average regular rate of compensation received by the employee during the last three years of his or her employment, or the employee’s final rate of compensation, whichever is higher. (2) The value of the cost of any benefits to which the employee would have been entitled had his or her employment not been lost, including the cost of any medical expenses incurred by the employee that would have been covered under an employee benefit plan. (b) Liability under this section is calculated for the period of the employer’s violation, up to a maximum of 60 days, or one-half the number of days that the employee was employed by the employer, whichever period is smaller. (c) The amount of an employer’s liability under subdivision (a) is reduced by the following: (1) Any wages, except vacation moneys accrued prior to the period of the employer’s violation, paid by the employer to the employee during the period of the employer’s violation. (2) Any voluntary and unconditional payments made by the employer to the employee that were not required to satisfy any legal obligation. (3) Any payments by the employer to a third party or trustee, such as premiums for health benefits or payments to a defined contribution pension plan, on behalf of and attributable to the employee for the period of the violation. An employer who fails to give notice as required by paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 1401 is subject to a civil penalty of not more than five hundred dollars ($500) for each day of the employer’s violation. The employer is not subject to a civil penalty under this section, however, if the employer pays to all applicable employees the amounts for which the employer is liable under Section 1402 within three weeks from the date the employer orders the mass layoff, relocation, or termination. |