Federal Labor Law
With the current state of the economy, more and more people are worried about being laid off from their jobs. They want to know whether or not there is a federal labor law in place to protect them from being terminated. Well, there is a labor law in the United States that relate to plant workers. There is an Act that has been defined as part of the federal labor law. You may, very well, receive some kind of solace with knowing that there is a labor law that has been set in place to at least make the fear of being laid off a little less painful. The federal labor law that does apply to some plant workers is the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN). It is beneficial to know if you are protected by this labor law. This federal labor law was written to give you some consolation if you are laid off.
1. The first thing that you need to know about the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification as it relates to the federal labor law is that in order to be protected by the Act, both you and the company have to meet specific qualifications. One of the main qualifications of the labor law that the employer has to meet to have to uphold to this federal labor law is that they must plan to lay off at least 50 employees at a time, that being at least 33% of the employees. One of the main qualifications for you to be protected by this labor law is that, in addition, you much work at least 20 hours a week for at least 6 months with the company. That is the beginning phase to being qualified to be protected by this labor law.
2. And how exactly does this federal labor law protect you? In the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, as it relates to the federal labor law, it states that if a qualified plant is going to lay off at least 50 employees, the labor law says that they must inform all those that are going to be laid off within 60 days written notice. This labor law goes on to say that if the workers are represented by a union, the written notice must go to them, and it is up to them as to when and how they are going to disclose the information.
3. One of the things that this federal labor law requires the plant to disclose in the written notice is if this a temporary or permanent layoff. Under this labor law, permanent is considered to be more than 6 months. The other thing that the federal labor law says is that is required to be put in writing is the date of layoff. The labor law gives the employer some leeway in terms of when that last day is. The labor law gives the plant a window of 14 days. The federal labor law states that they have up to either 14 days before or after the 60 day mark.
