Texas has no state layoff-notice statute, so the Texas WARN Act notice requirements are simply the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act as it operates in Texas: covered employers must give at least 60 calendar days’ written notice before a plant closing or mass layoff, delivered to affected workers (or their union), the Texas Workforce Commission, and the chief elected official of the local government where the event will happen.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2102 – Notice Required Before Plant Closings and Mass Layoffs The TWC’s role is to receive the filing and coordinate rapid response services for displaced workers; the legal obligations themselves come entirely from federal law.
Is Your Business Covered
WARN applies to any employer with 100 or more full-time employees, or 100 or more employees (full- and part-time combined) whose weekly hours add up to at least 4,000, not counting overtime.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2101 – Definitions A “part-time employee” for this purpose is someone who averages fewer than 20 hours per week or has worked fewer than 6 of the 12 months before notice would be due.
That definition matters because part-timers are excluded from the first test but counted in the second. A company with 80 full-time workers and 30 part-timers whose hours together reach 4,000 per week is covered.
What Triggers the 60-Day Notice
Two kinds of events require notice.
A plant closing is the permanent or temporary shutdown of a single site, or one or more operating units within a site, that causes employment loss for 50 or more full-time employees in any 30-day period.3eCFR. 20 CFR 639.3 – Definitions Part-time workers don’t count toward that 50.
A mass layoff is a workforce reduction short of a full closing that still hits at least 33 percent of the site’s full-time workforce and at least 50 employees. If 500 or more full-time workers are affected, the percentage test disappears and the event qualifies on its own.3eCFR. 20 CFR 639.3 – Definitions
What Counts as an Employment Loss
The term reaches further than termination. It covers three situations: a termination other than a firing for cause, voluntary quit, or retirement; a layoff lasting longer than six months; and a reduction in hours of more than 50 percent in each month of any six-month period.3eCFR. 20 CFR 639.3 – Definitions The hours category exists to catch employers who try to slide under the thresholds by cutting schedules instead of jobs.
The 90-Day Aggregation Rule
Separate rounds of job cuts within any 90-day window are added together. If the combined total crosses the plant-closing or mass-layoff threshold, every round requires notice, unless the employer can show each round arose from a separate and distinct cause.4U.S. Department of Labor. WARN Advisor Small, staggered reductions are where companies most often stumble into a WARN event without realizing it.
Who Gets Notice, and What It Must Say
Written notice goes to three recipients: each affected employee, or the union representative if the workers are represented; the state rapid response entity, which in Texas is the TWC; and the chief elected official of the local government where the event will occur.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2102 – Notice Required Before Plant Closings and Mass Layoffs If the worksite covers more than one local jurisdiction, notice goes to the one that received the highest tax payment from the employer the prior year.
Every notice must identify the affected site, name a company contact with a phone number, state whether the action is expected to be permanent or temporary, give the date of the first separation, and provide an anticipated schedule for any further separations. Notice to a union must also include the job titles of affected workers and bumping-rights information. Direct notice to non-union workers must cover the same job and bumping details.5eCFR. 20 CFR 639.7 – What Must the Notice Contain
When Shorter Notice Is Allowed
Three narrow exceptions let an employer give less than 60 days’ notice. In every case, the employer must still give as much notice as practicable and include a written statement explaining why the full period wasn’t met.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2102 – Notice Required Before Plant Closings and Mass Layoffs
- Faltering company. Available only for plant closings. The employer must have been actively seeking capital or business that would have allowed it to postpone the shutdown, and must have reasonably believed that giving 60 days’ notice would have scared off the deal.
- Unforeseeable business circumstances. The event was caused by circumstances the employer could not reasonably have predicted when notice would have been due. Courts judge foreseeability case by case, so a bad quarter alone won’t qualify.
- Natural disaster. No notice is required when the closing or layoff is directly caused by a flood, earthquake, drought, or similar natural disaster.
The faltering-company exception is the hardest to meet. Courts look for an active pursuit of a specific deal that announcement would have killed, not a general hope that conditions would improve.
Situations That Don’t Count
Transfers and Relocations
A worker who is offered a transfer when operations relocate or consolidate hasn’t experienced an employment loss if the new site is within a reasonable commuting distance, whether or not the worker accepts. If the new site is farther, the exclusion still applies when the worker accepts within 30 days of the offer or 30 days of the closing, whichever is later.6U.S. Department of Labor. WARN Advisor The offer must come before the closing, and any break in employment can’t exceed six months.
Strikes and Lockouts
A closing or layoff that results from a strike or lockout is exempt, provided the work stoppage isn’t being used to evade the law.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2103 – Exemptions Non-striking workers at the same site, or at other company locations, may still be owed notice unless a separate exception applies.
Sale of a Business
WARN obligations don’t disappear in a sale; they shift. The seller handles any closing or layoff through the date of sale. The buyer takes over afterward.8eCFR. 20 CFR 639.4 – Who Must Give Notice A technical change of employer where workers keep the same jobs is not an employment loss.9U.S. Department of Labor. WARN Advisor If the buyer plans layoffs within 60 days of closing, the buyer owes notice.
What Happens If an Employer Doesn’t Comply
The Department of Labor doesn’t enforce WARN directly. Its role is limited to guidance. Enforcement happens through private lawsuits in federal district court.10U.S. Department of Labor. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act Frequently Asked Questions
An employer that misses the 60-day notice owes each affected employee back pay and benefits for the period of violation, capped at 60 days. Back pay is figured at the higher of the employee’s average regular rate over the last three years or the employee’s final regular rate. The employer also owes the medical expenses that would have been covered under the company’s benefit plan during that period.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2104 – Administration and Enforcement of Requirements
Those damages are reduced by wages the employer actually paid during the violation period and by voluntary, unconditional payments not required by another law or contract. An employer who gave 30 days’ notice and paid severance covering the remaining 30 days can offset the back-pay liability.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2104 – Administration and Enforcement of Requirements
Failure to notify the local government carries a separate civil penalty of up to $500 per day of violation. The employer can avoid that penalty entirely by paying each affected employee full back pay and benefits within three weeks of ordering the shutdown or layoff.11Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2104 – Administration and Enforcement of Requirements Courts can award reasonable attorney fees to the prevailing party, and may reduce penalties when the employer acted in good faith with reasonable grounds for believing it was in compliance.
What Texas Workers Should Do After Receiving a Notice
Once TWC has the filing, it activates rapid response services through the local Workforce Solutions office, including on-site orientations, help with WorkInTexas.com registration, assistance filing for unemployment insurance, and retraining information. Workers displaced by shifts in international trade may also qualify for Trade Adjustment Assistance.12Texas Workforce Commission. Rapid Response Guide
Use those services before your last day on the job, not after. File for unemployment as soon as you are separated so your benefits don’t gap. Keep the WARN notice itself. If the employer gave fewer than 60 days and didn’t cite a valid exception, that notice is the starting evidence for a back-pay claim in federal court.