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In 2020, companies nationwide claimed that the global pandemic excused them from giving notice to employees of layoffs under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN).
WARN requires employers of a certain size to give 60-day notice to employees prior to a mass layoff or plant closing. No notice is required, however, if the mass layoff or plant closing is due to any form of a natural disaster, such as a flood, earthquake, or drought. Employers argued that the COVID-19 pandemic was a natural disaster, relieving them of WARN’s notice requirement prior to their layoffs and plant closings. Employers also argued that COVID-19 triggered WARN’s unforeseeable business circumstance exception, also relieving them of providing notice to employees about impending layoffs or closures. The unforeseeable business circumstance exception is triggered by a sudden, dramatic and unexpected action or condition outside th
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A recent decision by a federal court in Florida could invite protracted litigation for large employers who engaged in mass layoffs after the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, if those employers did not provide 60 days’ notice under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act and were hoping to rely on certain exceptions to the law’s notice requirements. In this recent case,
Benson v. Enterprise Leasing Company of Florida, Case No. 6:20-cv-891, the judge refused to apply the “unforeseeable business circumstances” exception to dismiss the case, and is instead allowing it to proceed to the discovery stage. Although the ruling is not binding on other courts, it could nevertheless be influential in deciding how to apply this exception to an employer’s obligation to give 60 days’ notice before a mass layoff because of COVID-19.
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In a recent decision, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida declined to dismiss WARN Act claims asserted by employees who were laid off during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Benson et al. v. Enterprise Leasing Company of Florida LLC et al., No. 6:20-cv-00891, (M.D. Fla. Jan. 4, 2021). The decision may provide a preview of how other federal courts will handle pandemic-related WARN Act claims, as employers could find it difficult to persuade courts to dismiss these claims at an early stage in the proceedings.
The WARN Act:
The Federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (“WARN Act”) generally requires large employers to provide 60 days’ advance notice to employees before instituting a “plant.