New York: NYS WARN Act Updated

WARN Act regulations were modified to:

• Include employees who work remotely—but are based at the employer’s worksite—as part of the employee count threshold. Employers with 50 employees are covered by the act.
• Include a differentiation between a temporary and permanent layoff. Temporary layoffs are mass layoffs that are less than six consecutive months with a plan that the employees will return after it ends. Temporary layoffs don’t trigger WARN notice requirements. Alternatively, permanent layoffs do trigger WARN notice requirements—employers must provide them when the employment loss starts—and are defined as mass layoffs that are longer than six consecutive months.
• Impose a notice requirement on purchasing employers that fail to transfer employees to work for them when it’s required under the sale agreement once the business sells.
• Add content and specifics (i.e., business address, telephone numbers, email addresses) to the WARN notice and provide it to the New York State Department of Labor (NYSDOL) and affected employees.
• Expand exceptions to when the mass layoff notice must be given. However, employers must still provide as much notice as possible, even if it’s late, and include a statement about why it wasn’t on time.
• Include provisions about payments in lieu of separation or layoff notice.

 

Read more about the act on the NYSDOL website.