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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 (more…)

With gas prices increasing, revenue declining and profit margins dwindling, many employers are taking a hard look at 2009 staffing. This may include combining positions, reducing staff by attrition, or laying workers off.

According to Sozeen Mondlin, associate general counsel with MITRE Corp, HR managers and employers should give careful consideration to choosing which employees to lay off.

“Given today’s economic climate, we all have to expect more activity in this area,” she said at the Association of Corporate Counsel annual conference in Seattle on October 19 to 21, 2008.

Mondlin said that employers are often sued by workers who (more…)