The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) generally requires covered employers to provide written notice at least 60 days in advance of covered plant closings and mass layoffs. The notice must be given to specific persons – affected workers or their representatives (for example, a labor union), the state Rapid Response Dislocated Worker Unit, and to local elected officials. The purpose of WARN is to provide displaced workers and their families some time to prepare for the prospective loss of employment by looking for alternative employment, and if necessary, entering a training or retraining program to obtain necessary skills to compete for available jobs. The advance notice also allows time for state and local officials to provide dislocated worker assistance.
WARN applies to private for-profit businesses, private non-profit businesses, and governmental or quasi-governmental entities that function in a commercial context and are separately organized from the regular government, if they employ either: