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Layoffs

Real estate job losses to further weaken state economy

12/01/2007

The quarterly UCLA Anderson Forecast predicts that accelerating job losses in construction and real estate finance will weaken California’s economy further than expected. However, unless another factor emerges, California will narrowly avoid a recession and instead will record “very weak but positive payroll growth through late 2008” …

Interstate Bakeries to close Southern California facilities

12/01/2007

On Oct. 3, the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Missouri approved motions to allow the managers of Interstate Bakeries Corp. to go ahead with plans to close most of its Southern California operations …

Worker notification requirements when layoffs are planned for 2008

12/01/2007

Q. We employ nearly 100 employees at a facility in San Jose. What type of notice must we provide if we are planning to lay off more than half of these employees during the first quarter of next year? …

Tropicana Casino faces yet another age discrimination suit

12/01/2007

Two former pit bosses are suing the Tropicana Casino and Resort in Atlantic City for replacing them with younger workers. The Tropicana already faces an EEOC lawsuit on behalf of 20 employees ranging in age from their late 40s to their early 70s who were laid off in January …

If layoff decision affects only a few, no notice necessary

12/01/2007

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) requires employers to notify workers of a mass layoff if the affected site has at least 50 employees. But the U.S. Labor Department regulations interpreting WARN specify that employees in the field belong to the office they report to. What happens, then, when a regional office employs just a handful of workers? …

No time for WARN notice? You can continue paying instead

12/01/2007

Congress passed the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) to give employees time to adjust to an imminent plant shutdown and prepare for unemployment. Covered employers are required to give employees 60 days’ notice before shutting down operations. Good news: The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that not giving WARN notice is fine—as long as the company continues to pay …

Track rejected job offers to show lack of discrimination

11/01/2007

Employees who begin to feel less valued at work often look for some underlying reason. Often they focus on suspected age, sex, national origin or some other form of discrimination. Then, when a layoff or reorganization costs them their jobs, they sue. Frequently they’ll argue that they should have been offered open positions, even if it would have meant receiving a smaller salary than they had been making …

Do temporary employees count for WARN Act?

11/01/2007

Q. Our company may be closing a small facility in which 25 regular employees and 50 additional temporary employees work. Do we include the temporary employees when we decide whether we must give a WARN Act plant-closing notice? …

Unemployment following a strike

11/01/2007

Q. We are a small, nonunion parts supplier for a large, unionized manufacturing plant. Due to an ongoing strike by our primary customer’s union, demand for our product has decreased significantly, and we are having difficulty meeting payroll. Consequently, we are preparing to lay off several of our staff. Our CFO remembered reading that in Indiana, someone who loses his job due to a strike is not eligible for unemployment compensation. But, because the only reason we are laying our people off is due to the strike at our customer’s facility, can we contest unemployment for our laid-off staff? …

Satellite offices may not count for WARN layoff notice

11/01/2007

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires employers to provide 60 days’ notice before a plant closing or a mass layoff involving 50 or more employees at a “single site of employment.” Employees have tried to argue that satellite offices should be included to determine if WARN notification was due …