Labor Law -- 2017



International Brotherhood of Boilermakers v. NASSCO Holdings Inc.   (Cal. Ct. App.)

Notice requirements under the California WARN Act

The NAM filed an amicus brief in the California Court of Appeals to challenge the California WARN ACT, which requires employers to provide 60-days’ notice before any “mass layoff, relocation, or termination.” This is an appeal from a lower court decision which held that NASSCO violated the WARN Act when it failed to provide required notice before informing 90 employees that they should not return to work for four to five weeks. California manufacturers, particularly those with cyclical employees or staffing requirements that ebb and flow, need certainty in meeting their staffing needs. The NAM’s brief argued that the court erred by reading “layoff” in the Act to include a furlough — a brief break during which about 90 employees (less than 3% of NASSCO’s workforce) did not earn wages but nevertheless remained as NASSCO employees. Unfortunately, the court did not agree with this view but instead affirmed the lower court’s decision, requiring an employer to provide 60 days’ notice prior to a mass layoff, even if the layoff is not permanent and is for less than six months.


Related Documents:
NAM brief  (May 1, 2017)