Tagged: Shut Down

The New Jersey WARN Act and the Coronavirus Epidemic – Update II

On January 21, 2020, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed into law major amendments to the Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Notification Act, more commonly referred to as the New Jersey WARN Act (“the Act”). These amendments require employers with 100 or more employees to give 90-days’ advance notice to the affected employees of any reduction in force involving at least 50 employees. Employees not given the required notice may bring a civil action for damages. Even when the employer complies with the Act’s notice requirements, the amendments require the employer to pay the affected employee severance in an amount equal to one week of pay for each year of service. Failure to comply with the notice requirements will entitle each affected employee to an additional four weeks of severance pay. A fuller discussion of the amendments can be found here. The amendments were to take effect on July 19, 2020, but, because of subsequent actions by the legislature in response to the coronavirus pandemic (see here), the effective date was changed to the 90th day after the termination of Governor Murphy’s Executive Order 103, issued on March 9, 2020, which declared a Public Health Emergency and State of Emergency due to the coronavirus outbreak. Until recently, Executive Order 103 remained in place without...

The New Jersey WARN Act and the Coronavirus Epidemic—An Update

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has signed into law new amendments to the Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Notification Act, more commonly referred to as the New Jersey WARN Act. The new amendments apply to the current statute and to prior amendments enacted on January 21 of this year that were to take effect on July 19, 2020. A full discussion of the January 21 amendments can be found here. Once the January 21 amendments go into effect, the Act will require employers with 100 or more employees to give advance notice to the affected employees of any reduction in force involving at least 50 employees. Employees not given the required notice currently may bring a civil action for damages; when the January 21 amendments take effect, even when an employer complies with the Act’s notice requirements, each affected employee will be entitled to severance pay in an amount equal to one week of pay for each year of service. The new amendments to the Act have important implications for the Act’s notice and severance provisions. On March 13, 2020, President Trump utilized the National Emergency Act to declare a national emergency due to the coronavirus outbreak. Under the current WARN Act and the January 21 amendments, an...