labor lawAdivision of labor law center

Effective February 1, 2009 New York employers must give workers more notice of layoffs.

 

The New York State Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification or WARN Act requires employers to provide 90 days notice to employees who will be laid off. The law applies to employers who are closing a plant, planning a mass layoff or a plant relocation that occurs on or after February 1, 2009. It does not apply to individual layoffs.

 

New York employers who are planning mass layoffs shortly after February 1, 2009 must act now to provide notice before the new law takes effect. The new law, Chapter 475, Section 25-A  of the New York code,  was passed by the state legislature on August 5, 2008.

 

According to the New York Department of Labor, the state WARN Act applies to any employer with 50 or more worker, who lays off at least 25 employees.

 

The law applies to plant closures and relocations. However, it does not apply in a situation where the employer consolidates or relocates a plant or office within a “reasonable commuting distance” if the employee is offered employment at the new location within 6 months.

 

The New York WARN act is enforced by the state Commissioner of Labor. Any employer who violates the law is subject to civil penalties and back wages. In some cases, the employer may have to pay the laid-off workers for an extra 90 days, because they were not given adequate notice. These penalty payments to employees do not change the employees unemployment benefits – they are in addition to any unemployment benefits.

 

The WARN act gives the state Department of Labor time to inform employees of their rights and benefits, and apply for additional federal funds to offer training and extended health insurance to laid off workers.

 

A longstanding federal WARN act requires employers in other states to give 60 days notice to employees and the state department of labor. The federal law applies when the employer lays off 50 or more people, or shuts down a plant. The New York law extends that same protection in the event of smaller layoffs, and requires an additional 30 days of warning.

 

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1. Posted by: new york state unemployment - ggamTAGS SEARCH

   [...] unemployment fell from the time the New Deal was launched until 1937, when, according to Nobel . New York WARN Act The New York State Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification or WARN Act requires employers to [...]

2. Posted by: donna h.

   If i was laid off and am part of WARN can I still apply for unemployment?
   my HR rep told all of us NO, 7 of us. Can we get reimbursed for the weeks we did not file?

3. Posted by: Amelia

   Hi donna! We can’t make a determination on individual cases, but generally workers who are laid off under WARN are entitled to unemployment. They are usually entitled to unemployment beneifts for a longer period than other workers. The HR rep was either uninformed, or was misleading you.
   You should apply for unemployment ASAP. Unfortunately, in most cases you cannot be reimbursed for previous weeks. HTH, and thanks for reading the blogs!~ Amelia