What are layoffs, and what is a WARN notice in the United States?
Short answer
A layoff is an employer ending jobs for business reasons rather than performance. In the US, the WARN Act generally requires employers with 100 or more employees to give 60 days’ written notice of a plant closing or mass layoff.
Most relevant for: United States
Layoffs, firings and redundancies
A layoff, called redundancy in the UK and some other countries, ends a job because the employer needs to cut costs or restructure, not because of the individual’s conduct. A firing, or dismissal for cause, is tied to the worker’s performance or behaviour. Laws on notice, severance and consultation differ widely between countries.
The WARN Act
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act of 1988 is a US federal law. It generally applies to employers with 100 or more employees, not counting part-time workers. Covered employers must give 60 calendar days’ advance written notice of a plant closing or a mass layoff to affected employees or their representatives, to the state dislocated worker unit and to local government.
A plant closing generally means a shutdown affecting 50 or more employees at a single site. A mass layoff generally means a reduction of 500 or more employees at a site, or 50 to 499 employees if they make up at least a third of the site’s workforce. The regulations set out exceptions, such as unforeseeable business circumstances, a faltering company or a natural disaster.
Reading layoff news
Some US states have their own laws with different thresholds and publish the WARN notices they receive, which is where many layoff reports originate. A WARN filing covers a particular site and notice date, so it need not match the total number announced by a company, and some announcements involve staff outside the United States. Headcount figures in media reports are often estimates.
This page is general information, not legal advice. Whether the law applies to a particular situation depends on its facts.