Twitter WARNing: Layoffs can trigger notice requirements

After Elon Musk took ownership of Twitter, the company laid off over 900 California employees. As news spread that Twitter plans to eliminate 50% of its workforce, employees filed a class action lawsuit against the company alleging the reduction in force violated the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act as well as California law. Turbulent times for Twitter employees have thrust this workers’ rights law into the spotlight, and with other layoffs in technology companies such as Meta and the whispers of a recession, it’s a good time to refresh your knowledge of the WARN Act’s requirements.

WARN Act

WARN serves to protect employees who lose their jobs as a result of plant closures, business sales and closures, and in Twitter’s case, mass layoffs. It requires covered employers to provide workers with 60 days’ advance notice of closings and layoffs in particular circumstances, including:

• Temporarily or permanently closing a facility, affecting at least 50 employees at a single site;
• Laying off 500 or more workers at a single site during a 30-day period; and
• Laying off 50-499 workers if it constitutes 33% of the employer’s total active workforce at the single site.

WARN generally applies when businesses with 100 or more full-time employees—excluding workers who have less than six months on the job and workers who work fewer than 20 hours in a week—lay off at least 50 people at a single site. The Act applies to private for-profit and nonprofit employers as well as some quasi-public entities.