FOREWARN Act

On June 14, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) reintroduced the Forewarn Act (S. 3297) in the Senate.  The Federal Oversight, Reform, and Enforcement of the Warn (FOREWARN) Act was originally introduced June 25, 2009, but died in committee without any action.    This legislation would amend the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act by requiring more and smaller employers to notify workers of mass firings or plant closings and increasing employer penalties and enforcement mechanisms for noncompliance.  

 “A plant closing or mass layoff doesn’t just affect workers, but also their families, the surrounding community and the economic livelihood of nearby businesses. When workers are laid off through no fault of their own, they deserve enough advance notice so that they can begin to search or retrain for new positions,” Brown said. “The current WARN Act has too many loopholes that allow larger businesses to avoid doing the right thing and giving proper advance notice to their employees. While no law can fully help blunt the impact of a plant shutdown or mass layoff, this bill would help protect workers and communities when they do occur.”

Generally, the Forewarn Act would apply to employers with at least 75 employees, reduced from the current 100-employee threshold required to initiate coverage.  Additionally, the Act would reduce the number of laid off employees needed to constitute a plant closing from 50 to 25, and lower the mass layoff trigger. In addition to lowering the threshold of employees, the bill would require an employer to give a 90-day written notice of plant closing or mass layoff.  The current notice period is 60 days.  It would require the employer to provide affected employees with information regarding benefits and services available to them, including unemployment compensation, trade adjustment assistance, COBRA benefits, onsite access to rapid response teams and certain other services. One of the new additions is that the bill would authorize the DOL to enforce the terms of the Act, and increase employer penalties for violations to double back pay.  Under current law, an employer is liable for regular back pay only.