The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 (“WARN Act”) requires a covered employer to provide 60 days’ notice of certain plant closings and mass layoff that cause a specified number of employees to lose their jobs. This Act is highly technical, which in conjunction with extensive regulations, contains many definitional ambiguities and potential traps for the unwary employer. Any business owner, with over 100 employees (some exceptions apply to this number), contemplating a business event that could produce job losses for 50 or more employees over a 30-day period (or, in some circumstances, over a 90-day period) should pay special heed to the Act.

As this article points out, Yahoo’s failure to follow the WARN Act may end up costing the company a significant sum of money, which could have been prevented.