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Employers often consider five key “work streams” at the initial planning stages of a reduction in force (RIF).

1. WARN Act and Mini-WARN Requirements

The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires employers to provide sixty days’ notice prior to a “plant closing” or “mass layoff.” A plant closing or mass layoff can be triggered with as few as fifty employment losses at a single site of employment. The federal WARN Act is not new, and courts have not radically altered the interpretation or application of the law in recent years.

What is new (or newer) is the proliferation of state-law (“mini-WARN”) analogues. Depending on how one counts, some sixteen states have their own versions of the WARN Act. Some are voluntary; others contain requirements that mainly track the federal WARN Act requirements. However, several states have thresholds that are tighter (i.e., can be triggered more easily) than federal WARN. For example, the Maryland mini-WARN law can be triggered with as few as fifteen employment losses. The mini-WARN laws in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin can be triggered with as few as twenty-five employment losses. Maine’s law requires severance in some circumstances. And California’s mini-WARN law—called “Cal/WARN”—departs from federal WARN Act requirements in many ways. Several other states have imposed other requirements. (New Jersey appears on the precipice of green-lighting a new law that will require ninety days of...

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