home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Shareware 1 2 the Maxx
/
sw_1.zip
/
sw_1
/
BUSI
/
SBA62.ZIP
/
FSBA.EXE
/
F108.SBE
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1992-04-30
|
5KB
|
88 lines
@083 CHAP 5
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ PLANT CLOSINGS, LAYOFFS: REQUIRED NOTICES │
│ BY EMPLOYERS TO EMPLOYEES UNDER "WARN" ACT │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────┘
If your business grows to the size where you have 100 or more full-
time employees (or the equivalent, based on 40 hour work weeks) at a
single location, you may be subject to the potentially onerous pro-
visions of the "Plant Closing" bill that was enacted by Congress in
1988 and went into effect on February 4, 1989. This law, called the
"WARN" Act (Worker Adjustment and Restraining Notification Act), would
affect you if you laid off 50 or more employees, or one-third of the
work force, in a 30-day period. It applies to virtually any plant
closing or major layoff for any reason, with a few obvious exceptions
(such as for an earthquake or flood, or a labor dispute such as a
strike or lockout, for which no notice need be given).
A "layoff" under this Act includes any of the following:
. A permanent termination of employment;
. A layoff of an employee for more than six months; or
. A loss of half the employees' working hours for six consecutive
months;
In case of any major layoff or shutdown, the law requires you to give
at least 60 days advance notice. If you give less than that, you are
required to pay the laid-off workers for 60 days minus the actual
number of days' notice you gave. The law requires you to notify the
labor union that represents the employees, or, if none, the individual
employees by mailing the notice to their last known address or includ-
ing it in their pay envelope. You must also notify the local city or
county government and state labor agency of the planned shutdown or
cutback.
@CODE: CA
You would be required to notify the Employment Development Department,
in the case of a shutdown or layoff in California.
@CODE:OF
The WARN Act doesn't generally PROHIBIT a company from making layoffs
or shutting down a money-losing plant, but it makes it more costly for
the employer to do so, and also gives local unions and politicians time
to find some way to attempt to coerce a company into maintaining an
antiquated facility that is no longer economically viable. Count on
being on the local 6:00 news if you try to shut down your business or
part of it, if you have become a major local employer.
The WARN law does impose stiff restrictions on a firm's ability to
sell off, reorganize, merge or consolidate operations, if such a
decision would adversely affect the jobs of 50 or more employees. In
other words, if your Japanese competition renders your plant obsoles-
cent, you may not be allowed to sell it off to a competitor if doing
so would cost 50 or more employees their jobs. If not, it appears
that your only option would be to simply board up the plant and go
broke. Despite the claim by its sponsors that WARN would somehow make
American business more competitive against foreign competition, it
seems that it has made it much more costly to take a risk on building a
plant in the U.S., since if it fails you may have to go down the tubes
with it, rather than re-structuring or selling it off.
The unintended consequence of this supposed "job-saving" legislation
(which, coincidentally, was timed to invite Reagan's veto just before
the 1988 elections), will be to make any employer think long and hard
about hiring employees, and to start trying to find a way to automate
every phase of its business. In effect, the government has taken the
first major step towards West German-style social legislation,
requiring that companies who hire employees must hire them for life,
regardless of whether the business remains viable. In short, like
West German employers have learned to do for years, you must become
very careful about hiring employees if your business is subject to
the WARN provisions, since you may be hiring them for life. In
Germany, the result has been virtually zero growth in the number of
jobs in the last decade or more, despite a very prosperous economy.
And they said it could never happen here....
This new law should create a great deal of employment for lawyers,
however, if that is any consolation. There has already been a great
deal of litigation over what does and does not constitute a mass layoff
or shutdown under WARN. It's an ill wind that blows no one some
good....
@CODE: ME HI
Note that a plant closing law similar to the federal law has been
enacted also by @STATE.