The cosmetics company magnate Mary Kay once famously criticized a focus on superficial appeal for leaving the nation’s populace “vogue on the outside, but vague on the inside.” That critique might well be levied against the California Relocations, Terminations, and Mass Layoffs Act, California Labor Code §§1400 et seq., better known as “Cal-WARN.” Although it ostensibly serves the salutary purpose of protecting workers, Cal-WARN contains many imprecise and undefined provisions that can become hazardous pitfalls for employers seeking to navigate its requirements. Here are some of those hazards and insights as to how employers might approach them.
‘THE SAME, BUT DIFFERENT’
When it was enacted in 2002, Cal-WARN was modeled after the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, 29 U.S.C. §§2101 et seq., which Congress had enacted 14 years earlier, in August 1988. Broadly speaking, the two laws have much in common. Both the state and the federal law require certain employers who order a mass layoff or plant closure to provide notice to affected employees 60 days before the order takes effect.
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