Josh Goodbaum: Hi, Amanda.
Amanda DeMatteis: Hi, Josh. What are we going to talk about today?
Goodbaum: I want to talk about Twitter. How’s that for an attention grabber? What I want to talk about is maybe a little drier than that, which is, in late 2022, we heard about after Elon Musk took over the company, he laid off a bunch of people. And then, I feel like I read in the news that a lot of those people were suing. So, tell me what that’s about and what Connecticut employees need to know about mass layoffs, like at Twitter.
DeMatteis: Got to love talking about Elon Musk. What those lawsuits were about is the WARN Act. That’s the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, W-A-R-N. And what that requires is for certain employers – big employers, think 100 employees or more – to provide notice to their employees at the time of termination. But it’s only for certain terminations – plant closures, layoffs, sale of a business. So that’s why Twitter got messed up in this, right, because they had this mass layoff. Of course, they employ more than 100 people.
So if you find yourself working for a big employer here in Connecticut or anywhere else in the country and you’re subject to a mass layoff, or maybe you work in a Connecticut plant of a huge national company that is closing, or there’s a sale of a business, again with more than 100 employees. That may trigger WARN protection.
And what that means is the employer has to give 60 days notice. That doesn’t mean that you can say, ‘Well, thanks for the notice. I think I’ll take 60 days off,’ and they’re required to pay you. Unfortunately, it’s not that nice of a law. But, what it does require is that you get that 60 days notice, if you work during that 60-day notice period, they, of course, have to pay you for the time that you worked. And the idea is that it gives you some time to find another job and head into another career path without too much of an interruption to your life or your finances.
There are some nuances to this, and we’re not covering every single thing in this video, but the takeaway is you’re a Connecticut employee, you work for a big company of over 100 employees or more, and you are part of a layoff, plant closure, or sale of that business, you might want to talk to an employment lawyer.
Goodbaum: Really great information and one of those lesser-known employment laws that’s helpful for people to be aware of. Thanks so much, Amanda.
DeMatteis: Thank you, Josh. Take care.