WARN Act Exception Transfer Employees
Question presented:
Under the WARN Act, is a WARN Notice required for transferring employees?
We invite your attention to our disclaimer.
Notice is not required in certain cases involving transfers because the transfer is not considered an employment loss (see glossary). If your employer offers you a transfer to a job within a reasonable commuting distance, you are not considered to have suffered an employment loss, whether or not you take the job. If your employer offers you a job outside a reasonable commuting distance (see FAQs), you must accept the job within 30 days, or you are considered to have suffered an employment loss.
There are two other conditions to this transfer rule. One is that the offer of a transfer must be the result of a consolidation or transfer of your employer’s business. The other is that the offer must be made before the plant closing or mass layoff occurs. An offer of reassignment to a different site of employment would not be deemed to be a “transfer” if the new job constitutes a constructive discharge (see glossary).
Reasonable Commuting Distance
If an employer offers to transfer employees to another location, how determine if the transfer is within a reasonable commuting distance? Is it based on time, mileage, local custom, or some combination?
The meaning of the term “reasonable commuting distance” will vary with local and industry conditions. Determining what is a “reasonable commuting distance” involves consideration of the following factors: geographic accessibility of the place of work, the quality of the roads, customarily available transportation, and the usual travel time. The starting point for determining whether a commuting distance is reasonable is your home, not where you work.