In West Virginia, a WARN notice is the 60-day written warning that federal law requires an employer to give before a plant closing or mass layoff. The state has no WARN statute of its own, so the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act supplies all the rules that apply here, from which employers are covered to what the notice must say and what happens if it is skipped.
Which Employers Have to Give Notice
The WARN Act applies to any business that employs 100 or more full-time workers. It also applies to employers with 100 or more employees, counting part-timers, whose combined hours add up to at least 4,000 per week.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC Chapter 23 – Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Smaller employers in West Virginia are not covered by any parallel state law, so a workforce reduction at a company below those thresholds does not carry a WARN obligation.
When the 60-Day Clock Starts
Two kinds of events trigger notice. A plant closing is the permanent or temporary shutdown of a worksite, or a major unit inside one, that causes 50 or more full-time employees to lose their jobs within a 30-day window. A mass layoff is a workforce reduction short of a full shutdown that still produces job losses at a single site during a 30-day period for at least 50 full-time employees making up at least a third of the site’s full-time workforce, or for 500 or more full-time employees regardless of percentage.1Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC Chapter 23 – Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification
Not every separation counts toward those thresholds. An “employment loss” under WARN is a termination other than a firing for cause, a voluntary quit, or retirement; a layoff lasting longer than six months; or a cut of more than 50 percent in an employee’s hours during each month of a six-month period.2eCFR. 20 CFR 639.3 – Definitions
The 90-Day Aggregation Rule
An employer cannot sidestep the law by breaking a large reduction into smaller rounds. If separate rounds of cuts fall within any 90-day window and each one is below the thresholds on its own, the numbers are added together. Once the combined total crosses a threshold, every affected worker in that window is owed the full 60 days of notice, unless the employer shows that each round came from a separate and distinct cause.3U.S. Department of Labor. WARN Advisor – Aggregation
What the Notice Has to Say and Who Gets It
Federal regulations set out the contents of a valid notice. The core elements:
- Name and address of the worksite, with the name and phone number of a company official who can answer questions.4eCFR. 20 CFR 639.7 – What Must the Notice Contain
- Whether the action is permanent or temporary, and whether the entire plant is closing.
- The expected date of the first separation and the schedule for any later rounds.
- Job titles of the positions being cut and the number of employees in each classification.
- Whether bumping rights exist.
Notices sent to individual employees, rather than to a union representative, must be written in language the workers can understand and must state each employee’s expected separation date.4eCFR. 20 CFR 639.7 – What Must the Notice Contain A notice that leaves out required fields can be treated as no notice at all.
Three recipients must get the notice at least 60 days before the first separation. If workers are unionized, their union is served; otherwise each affected employee is notified individually. The chief elected official of the local government also receives notice, and if the worksite spans more than one jurisdiction, the one that gets the highest tax payments from the employer is the one served.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2102 – Notice Required Before Plant Closings and Mass Layoffs The third recipient is the state dislocated worker unit, which in West Virginia is WorkForce West Virginia’s Rapid Response team at wfwvrapidresponse@wv.gov.6WorkForce West Virginia. Rapid Response Once Rapid Response has the notice, it can start lining up reemployment help, unemployment filing assistance, and retraining services for the affected workers.
Exceptions That Shorten or Eliminate Notice
Three narrow exceptions can cut the 60-day window. In the first two, the employer still has to give as much notice as it can and explain in writing why the full period was not possible.7eCFR. 20 CFR 639.9 – When May Notice Be Given Less Than 60 Days in Advance
- Faltering company. This applies only to plant closings. The employer must have been actively seeking financing or new business, had a realistic chance of landing it, and reasonably believed in good faith that announcing the closure would scare off the deal. Courts read it narrowly.7eCFR. 20 CFR 639.9 – When May Notice Be Given Less Than 60 Days in Advance
- Unforeseeable business circumstances. The closing or layoff must have been caused by something sudden, dramatic, and unexpected that the employer could not reasonably have predicted when the 60-day clock would have started.8U.S. Department of Labor. WARN Advisor – Unforeseeable Business Circumstances
- Natural disaster. No WARN notice is required when a plant closing or mass layoff results directly from a natural disaster such as a flood, earthquake, or drought.5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2102 – Notice Required Before Plant Closings and Mass Layoffs
The employer carries the burden of proving an exception applies, and claiming one without strong documentation is a common route to liability.
What Happens If an Employer Skips Notice
The U.S. Department of Labor does not enforce the WARN Act. Enforcement runs entirely through private lawsuits in federal district court, which means an affected worker or union has to bring the case.9U.S. Department of Labor. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act Frequently Asked Questions
An employer that fails to give the required notice owes each affected employee back pay and the value of lost benefits for every day of the violation, capped at 60 days. Back pay is calculated at the higher of the employee’s average regular rate over the previous three years or the final regular rate, and the figure is reduced by any wages actually paid during the violation period and by voluntary payments the employer makes.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2104 – Liability
An employer that fails to notify the local government also faces a civil penalty of up to $500 per day of violation. That penalty is waived entirely if the employer pays each aggrieved employee the full amount owed within three weeks of ordering the shutdown or layoff.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 USC 2104 – Liability A court may award reasonable attorney’s fees to the prevailing party.11U.S. Department of Labor. WARN Advisor – Frequently Asked Questions
Finding WARN Notices Filed in West Virginia
WorkForce West Virginia publishes WARN filings on its website as PDFs grouped by year.12WorkForce West Virginia. WARN Listing Each listing shows the employer, the number of affected workers, and the location. The collection is not a searchable database, so finding a particular company often means opening individual files. If a notice you expect to see is not posted, you can contact WorkForce West Virginia directly or submit a public records request under the state’s Freedom of Information Act.