29 U.S.C. § 2102 : US Code - Section 2102: Notice required before plant closings and mass layoffs

Search 29 U.S.C. § 2102 : US Code - Section 2102: Notice required before plant closings and mass layoffs

(a) Notice to employees, State dislocated worker units, and local
governments
An employer shall not order a plant closing or mass layoff until
the end of a 60-day period after the employer serves written notice
of such an order -
(1) to each representative of the affected employees as of the
time of the notice or, if there is no such representative at that
time, to each affected employee; and
(2) to the State or entity designated by the State to carry out
rapid response activities under section 2864(a)(2)(A) of this
title, and the chief elected official of the unit of local
government within which such closing or layoff is to occur.
If there is more than one such unit, the unit of local government
which the employer shall notify is the unit of local government to
which the employer pays the highest taxes for the year preceding
the year for which the determination is made.
(b) Reduction of notification period
(1) An employer may order the shutdown of a single site of
employment before the conclusion of the 60-day period if as of the
time that notice would have been required the employer was actively
seeking capital or business which, if obtained, would have enabled
the employer to avoid or postpone the shutdown and the employer
reasonably and in good faith believed that giving the notice
required would have precluded the employer from obtaining the
needed capital or business.
(2)(A) An employer may order a plant closing or mass layoff
before the conclusion of the 60-day period if the closing or mass
layoff is caused by business circumstances that were not reasonably
foreseeable as of the time that notice would have been required.
(B) No notice under this chapter shall be required if the plant
closing or mass layoff is due to any form of natural disaster, such
as a flood, earthquake, or the drought currently ravaging the
farmlands of the United States.
(3) An employer relying on this subsection shall give as much
notice as is practicable and at that time shall give a brief
statement of the basis for reducing the notification period.
(c) Extension of layoff period
A layoff of more than 6 months which, at its outset, was
announced to be a layoff of 6 months or less, shall be treated as
an employment loss under this chapter unless -
(1) the extension beyond 6 months is caused by business
circumstances (including unforeseeable changes in price or cost)
not reasonably foreseeable at the time of the initial layoff; and
(2) notice is given at the time it becomes reasonably
foreseeable that the extension beyond 6 months will be required.
(d) Determinations with respect to employment loss
For purposes of this section, in determining whether a plant
closing or mass layoff has occurred or will occur, employment
losses for 2 or more groups at a single site of employment, each of
which is less than the minimum number of employees specified in
section 2101(a)(2) or (3) of this title but which in the aggregate
exceed that minimum number, and which occur within any 90-day
period shall be considered to be a plant closing or mass layoff
unless the employer demonstrates that the employment losses are the
result of separate and distinct actions and causes and are not an
attempt by the employer to evade the requirements of this chapter.