Employer Did Not Violate WARN Act
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (“WARN Act”) requires that certain employers provide their employees with written notice 60 days before a plant shutdown causes the employees an employment loss, including an employment termination other than discharge for cause, voluntary departure, or retirement.
In this case, a covered employer ceased all production at its golf ball manufacturing plant without prior notice of the shutdown. The employer, however, provided notice of the shutdown at the time of shutdown and for the next 60 days continued to pay full wages and benefits to all but twenty-two employees. The employer stopped payments to those twenty-two employees when they began full-time employment with another employer.
Those employees brought this suit, asserting that the employer violated the WARN Act and should pay their wages and benefits for the entire 60-day notice period. Holding that the employer did not violate the WARN Act because no employee suffered an employment loss as a result of the plant shutdown until 60 days after the employer provided notice of it, the 4th Circuit affirmed the district court's grant of summary judgment to the employer.
Long v. Dunlop
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals’ jurisdiction includes Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.