WARN Advisor

What Information Must be Included in the Notice?

You must give notice to your workers who will be affected by a plant closing or mass layoff or to the union that represents them, to the chief elected official of the local government in which the site of the plant closing or mass layoff is located and to the State Dislocated Worker Unit. The following is the information that each of these three notices must contain:

Notice to Workers:

• The name and telephone number of a company contact person who can provide additional information.
• An explanation of whether the plant closing or mass layoff will be temporary or permanent, and whether the entire plant is being closed.
• The expected date of the first job losses, and the date on which the worker will be separated. You have some leeway in predicting the dates on which workers will be separated. You may give notice that a worker will be separated with a two-week (14-day) period after a certain date. If you choose to use a 14-day period, you must give notice 60 days before the first day of the 14-day period.
• An indication of whether any bumping rights exist.

Notice to a representative of affected employees (union):

• The name and address of where the mass layoff or plant closing is to occur, along with the name and telephone number of a company contact person who can provide additional information.
• An explanation of whether the plant closing or mass layoff will be temporary or permanent, and whether the entire plant is being closed.
• The expected date of the first job losses, along with a schedule of any further employment reductions. (You have some leeway in predicting the dates on which workers will be separated. You may give notice that a worker will be separated with a two-week (14-day) period after a certain date. If you choose to use a 14-day period, you must give notice 60 days before the first day of the 14-day period.)
• The job titles of the affected positions and the names of the workers in those positions.

Notice to the chief elected official and the State Rapid Response Dislocated Worker Unit:

• The name and address of where the mass layoff or plant closing is to occur, along with the name and telephone number of a company contact person who can provide additional information.
• A statement of whether the plant closing or mass layoff will be temporary or permanent, and whether the entire plant is being closed.
• The expected date of the first job losses, along with a schedule of any further employment reductions.
• The job titles of the affected positions and the number of workers in each job classification.
• An indication of whether any bumping rights exist.
• The name of each union representing the affected workers, if any, and the name and address of the chief elected official of each union.

There is also an alternative form of notice for a chief elected official of the local government and the State Rapid Response Dislocated Worker Unit. Under this alternative, you must provide a written notice that contains:

• The name and address of where the mass layoff or plant closing is to occur, along with the name and telephone number of a company contact person who can provide additional information.
• The expected date of the first job losses.
• The number of workers affected.

You must keep the other information listed in the longer form of notice available on the site of employment and must make it available to the State Rapid Response Dislocated Worker Unit and the local government. If you fail to provide this information when requested, it is considered a failure to give notice.

You must base your notice on the facts available when the notice is due to be given. The WARN regulations provide that errors in a notice that result from changes in the facts or that are minor and inadvertent should not be considered to violate WARN.

What the notice to workers and other entities must contain is addressed in Section 639.7 of the WARN regulations and discussed in the Preamble to the 1989 Final Rule.

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