Missouri WARN Act: Notice Triggers, Penalties, and Enforcement

The Missouri WARN Act is really the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act applied in Missouri, because the state has not enacted its own version. Covered employers must give at least 60 days’ written notice before a plant closing or mass layoff, and notices filed with the state are handled by the Missouri Office of Workforce Development inside the Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development.¹ One detail matters more than any other for workers: the U.S. Department of Labor does not investigate WARN violations or sue on your behalf. Enforcement happens through private lawsuits.²

Which Employers Have to Give Notice

WARN reaches private businesses and nonprofits that meet one of two size tests. A business is covered if it employs 100 or more full-time workers. It is also covered if it has 100 or more employees total, counting full-time and part-time, who together work at least 4,000 hours per week excluding overtime.³

Part-time means fewer than 20 hours per week on average, or fewer than 6 of the last 12 months on the job. Those workers do not count toward the 100-employee test, but their hours are included in the 4,000-hour test.⁴ Workers on temporary layoff or approved leave who reasonably expect to be recalled still count.⁵

Federal, state, and local government employers are not covered. A publicly owned entity that runs as an independent business with its own management and revenue can be covered, however, if it is separately organized from the regular government.⁵

What Triggers the 60-Day Notice

Two kinds of events require notice: plant closings and mass layoffs. The numbers behind each are different, and this is where employers most often misjudge their obligation.

Plant Closing

A plant closing happens when an employer permanently or temporarily shuts down a single site, or one or more operating units within a site, and 50 or more full-time employees lose their jobs during any 30-day period as a result.⁶

Mass Layoff

A mass layoff is a workforce reduction at a single site that is not driven by a full shutdown. It triggers WARN in either of two situations during a 30-day period:

500 or more full-time workers are laid off, regardless of what share of the workforce they represent.
At least 50 full-time workers are laid off and they make up at least 33 percent of the full-time workforce at the site.

Both parts of the 50-to-499 test have to be met. Laying off 60 workers at a site with 500 full-time employees does not trigger WARN, because 60 is only 12 percent of the workforce.⁶

Rolling Layoffs Over 90 Days

Spreading cuts across several weeks does not avoid WARN. If separate rounds of layoffs within any 90-day window each fall below the threshold on their own but together hit the trigger numbers, notice is required for each round. The employer can escape only by proving each round came from a completely separate and distinct cause.⁷

What Counts as an Employment Loss

Not every separation triggers WARN. An employment loss means one of three things: a termination that is not a firing for cause, voluntary quit, or retirement; a layoff that lasts longer than six months; or a cut of more than 50 percent in work hours during each month of any six-month period.⁴

The six-month rule catches employers who label a permanent layoff as temporary. A layoff initially described as short-term becomes an employment loss once it passes six months, and it can retroactively trigger the notice requirement if enough workers are affected.

Who Must Receive Notice and What It Must Say

The employer has to deliver written notice at least 60 days before the first separation to:

Each affected employee individually, or to the chief elected officer of the union if the workers are represented.⁸
Missouri’s dislocated worker unit, which is the Office of Workforce Development.¹
The chief elected official of the local government where the site is located, or the jurisdiction where the employer pays the highest taxes if it operates in several.⁸

Delivery to individual workers can be hand-delivery at work, first-class mail, or a notice enclosed in a pay envelope. Posting on a bulletin board or using a generic preprinted insert does not count.⁹

There is no standardized form. The notice must identify the site’s name and address; whether the action is a plant closing or mass layoff; whether it is permanent or temporary; whether the entire site is shutting down; the expected date of the first separation and the schedule for later ones; the job titles affected and the number of workers in each; any bumping rights under a collective bargaining agreement; and a company contact for further information. Notices to non-union employees also state whether their own separation is permanent or temporary and give their expected date.

Filing in Missouri

Missouri accepts WARN notices by email at ETT.DWD@dhewd.mo.gov or by mail to the WARN Coordinator at the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development, Office of Workforce Development, PO Box 1087, Jefferson City, MO 65102.¹

When Less Than 60 Days’ Notice Is Allowed

Three narrow exceptions let an employer give shorter notice. Even then, the employer has to give as much notice as possible and include a written explanation of why the full 60 days was not provided.⁸

Faltering company. Applies only to plant closings, not mass layoffs. The employer must have been actively seeking capital or new business that would have kept the site open and reasonably believed in good faith that giving notice would have driven the deal away.¹⁰
Unforeseeable business circumstances. Sudden, dramatic conditions outside the employer’s control that could not reasonably have been anticipated when notice would have been due. A major client abruptly canceling a large contract can qualify; a gradual sales decline does not.¹¹
Natural disaster. No notice is required when the closing or layoff results directly from a flood, earthquake, tornado, or similar natural disaster.⁸

The employer carries the burden of proving an exception applies. Asserting that circumstances were unforeseeable is not enough on its own.

Penalties for Skipping Notice

An employer that fails to give the required notice faces two categories of liability.

The first is back pay to each affected worker for every day of the violation period, calculated at the higher of the employee’s average regular rate over the preceding three years or their final regular rate. The employer also owes the cost of any benefits the worker would have received, including medical expenses that would have been covered by the company health plan. This liability is capped at 60 days and cannot exceed half the total number of days the employee worked for the company.¹²

The second is a civil penalty of up to $500 per day for failing to notify the local government. That penalty is waived if the employer pays all affected workers their full back pay and benefits within three weeks of ordering the shutdown or layoff.¹²

A court can reduce either penalty if the employer shows it acted in good faith and had reasonable grounds for believing no violation occurred.¹²

How Workers Enforce the Law

The Department of Labor cannot investigate WARN complaints or sue employers. Its role is limited to publishing guidance. Enforcement is through private lawsuits filed in federal district court by workers or their unions.²

If your Missouri employer skipped the 60 days and you want the back pay the statute provides, you will need to hire an attorney. The federal WARN Act sets no statute of limitations of its own, so courts borrow the filing deadline from analogous state law. The window varies, and waiting too long can forfeit the claim.

What Happens in a Business Sale

When a Missouri business is sold, the seller is responsible for any plant closing or mass layoff that occurs up to and including the sale date. The buyer takes on WARN responsibility for any job losses after closing.¹³

Workers who keep their jobs through the transition have not experienced an employment loss, even though they are now working for a different company. They automatically become the buyer’s employees for WARN purposes. If the buyer sharply cuts wages or changes conditions enough that a reasonable person would consider themselves fired, that can qualify as a constructive discharge and count as an employment loss.¹³

1
JobsMoGov. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN)
2
U.S. Department of Labor. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act Frequently Asked Questions
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S.C. Chapter 23 – Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 2101 – Definitions; Exclusions From Definition of Loss of Employment
5
eCFR. 20 CFR 639.3 – Definitions
6
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S.C. 2101 – Definitions; Exclusions From Definition of Loss of Employment
7
U.S. Department of Labor. WARN Advisor – Aggregation
8
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S.C. 2102 – Notice Required Before Plant Closings and Mass Layoffs
9
U.S. Department of Labor. WARN Advisor – Notice Delivery Methods
10
U.S. Department of Labor. WARN Advisor – Faltering Company
11
U.S. Department of Labor. WARN Advisor – Unforeseeable Business Circumstances
12
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S.C. 2104 – Liability
13
U.S. Department of Labor. WARN Advisor – Sale of Business