AB 2530: Employment: Cal/WARN Act: plant closings and mass layoffs.

(a)This article shall apply to an employer’s relocation of a call center, as defined in this article.

(b)The following definitions shall apply to this article:

(1)“Call center” means a facility or other operation where employees, as their primary function, receive telephone calls or other electronic communication for the purpose of providing customer service or other related functions.

(2)“Call center employer” means an employer of a covered establishment, as those terms are defined, who operates a call center.

(3)“Covered establishment” means any industrial or commercial facility or part thereof that employs, or has employed within the preceding 12 months, 75 or more persons.

(4)“Employee” means a person employed by an employer for at least 6 months of the 12 months preceding the date on which notice is required.

(5)“Employer” means any person, as defined by Section 18, who directly or indirectly owns and operates a covered establishment. A parent corporation is an employer as to any covered establishment directly owned and operated by its corporate subsidiary.

(6)“Layoff” means a separation from a position for lack of funds or lack of work.

(7)“Mass layoff” means a layoff during any 30-day period of 50 or more employees at a covered establishment.

(8)“Relocation of a call center” includes when the employer intends to move its call center, or one or more facilities or operating units within a call center comprising at least 30 percent of the call center’s or operating unit’s total volume when measured against the average call volume for the previous 12 months, or substantially similar operations to a foreign country.

(9)“Termination” means the cessation or substantial cessation of industrial or commercial operations in a covered establishment.

(c)(1)This article does not apply where the closing or layoff is the result of the completion of a particular project or undertaking of an employer subject to Wage Order 11, regulating the Broadcasting Industry, Wage Order 12, regulating the Motion Picture Industry, or Wage Order 16, regulating Certain On-Site Occupations in the Construction, Drilling, Logging and Mining Industries, of the Industrial Welfare Commission, and the employees were hired with the understanding that their employment was limited to the duration of that project or undertaking.

(2)This article does not apply to employees who are employed in seasonal employment where the employees were hired with the understanding that their employment was seasonal and temporary.

The following definitions shall apply to this article:

(a)“Affected employee” means an employee who may reasonably be expected to experience an employment loss as a consequence of a proposed plant closing or mass layoff by their employer.

(b)“Aggrieved employee” means an employee who has worked for the employer ordering the plant closing or mass layoff and who, as a result of the failure by the employer to comply with the notice requirement of this article, did not receive timely notice either directly or through their representative.

(c)“Department” means the Employment Development Department.

(d)Subject to Section 1415.1, “employment loss” means any of the following:

(1)An employment termination, other than a discharge for cause, voluntary departure, or retirement.

(2)A layoff exceeding six months.

(3)A reduction in hours of work of more than 50 percent during each month of any six-month period.

(e)(1)“Employer” means any public agency, person, as defined in Section 18, or any other entity that satisfies either of the following:

(A)Employs 100 or more employees, excluding part-time employees.

(B)Employs 100 or more employees who, in the aggregate, work at least 4,000 hours per week, excluding hours of overtime.

(2)A parent corporation shall be an “employer” as to any facility, operating unit, or site of employment directly owned and operated by its corporate subsidiary.

(f)“Mass layoff” means a reduction in force that is not the result of a plant closing and that results in an employment loss at the single site of employment during any 30-day period satisfying either of the following criteria:

(1)At least 33 percent of employees, totaling at least 50 employees, experience employment loss. This number shall exclude part-time employees.

(2)At least 500 employees, excluding part-time employees, experience employment loss.

(g)“Part-time employee” means an employee who is employed for an average of fewer than 20 hours per week or who has been employed for fewer than 6 of the 12 months preceding the date on which notice is required by this article.

(h)“Plant closing” means the permanent or temporary shutdown of a single site of employment, or one or more facilities or operating units within a single site of employment, if the shutdown results in an employment loss at the single site of employment during any 30-day period for 50 or more employees, excluding any part-time employees.

(i)“Public agency” means the state and any political subdivision of the state, including any city, county, city and county, or special district.

(j)“Representative” means an exclusive representative of employees.

(k)“Unit of local government” means a local public agency.

(a)(1)In the case of a sale of part or all of an employer’s business, the seller shall be responsible for providing notice for any plant closing or mass layoff in accordance with Section 1415.2 up to and including the effective date of the sale. Following the effective date of the sale, the purchaser shall be responsible for providing notice for any plant closing or mass layoff.

(2)Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, any natural person who is an employee of the seller, other than a part-time employee, as of the effective date of the sale shall be considered an employee of the purchaser immediately after the effective date of the sale.

(b)Notwithstanding the definition of “employment loss” in Section 1415, an employee shall not be considered to have experienced an “employment loss” if the plant closing or mass layoff is the result of a relocation or consolidation of part or all of the employer’s business and, prior to the closing or layoff, the employer does either of the following:

(1)The employer offers to transfer the employee to a different site of employment within a reasonable commuting distance with no more than a six-month break in employment.

(2)The employer offers to transfer the employee to any other site of employment regardless of distance with no more than a six-month break in employment, and the employee accepts within 30 days of the offer or of the plant closing or mass layoff, whichever is later.

(a)An employer shall not order a plant closing or mass layoff until the end of a 60-day period after the employer serves written notice of such an order to all of the following:

(1)To each representative of the affected employees as of the time of the notice or, if there is no such representative at that time, to each affected employee.

(2)To the department.

(3)To the chief elected official of the unit of local government within which the plant closing or mass layoff is to occur. If there is more than one applicable unit of local government, the employer shall notify the chief elected official of the unit of local government to which the employer pays the highest taxes for the taxable year preceding the taxable year for which the determination is made.

(b)(1)Notwithstanding subdivision (a), an employer may order the shutdown of a single site of employment before the conclusion of the 60-day period if, as of the time such notice would have been required, the employer was actively seeking capital or business which, if obtained, would have enabled the employer to avoid or postpone the shutdown and the employer reasonably and in good faith believed that giving the notice required would have precluded the employer from obtaining the needed capital or business.

(2)(A)Notwithstanding subdivision (a), an employer may order a plant closing or a mass layoff before the conclusion of the 60-day period if the closing or mass layoff is caused by business circumstances that were not reasonably foreseeable as of the time that notice would have been required.

(B)Notwithstanding subdivision (a), notice under this article shall not be required if the plant closing or mass layoff is due to any form of natural disaster, including, but not limited to, a flood, earthquake, or drought.

(3)An employer relying on this subdivision shall provide as much notice as is practicable and at that time shall give a brief statement of the basis for reducing the notification period.

(c)A mass layoff of more than six months that was announced, at its outset, to be a layoff of six months or less, shall be treated as an employment loss under this article unless both of the following are satisfied:

(1)The extension beyond six months is caused by business circumstances, including, but not limited to, unforeseeable changes in prices or cost, not reasonably foreseeable at the time of the initial layoff.

(2)Notice is given at the time it becomes reasonably foreseeable that the extension beyond six months will be required.

(d)For purposes of this section, in determining whether a plant closing or mass layoff has occurred or will occur, employment losses for two or more groups at a single site of employment, each of which is less than the minimum number of employees but which in the aggregate exceed that minimum number, and which occur within any 90-day period shall be considered to be a plant closing or mass layoff, unless the employer demonstrates that the employment losses are the result of separate and distinct actions and causes and are not an attempt by the employer to evade the requirements of this article.

Notwithstanding any other provision of this article, this article shall not apply to a plant closing or mass layoff if any of the following apply:

(a)The plant closing is of a temporary facility and the affected employees were hired with the understanding that their employment was limited to the duration of the facility.

(b)The plant closing or mass layoff is the result of the completion of a particular project or undertaking and the affected employees were hired with the understanding that their employment was limited to the duration of the project or undertaking.

(c)(1)The plant closing or layoff constitutes a strike or constitutes a lockout not intended to evade the requirements of this article.

(2)This article shall not be construed to require an employer to serve written notice pursuant to Section 1415.2 when permanently replacing a person who is deemed to be an economic striker under the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. Sec. 151 et seq.). This article also shall not be construed to validate or invalidate any judicial or administrative ruling relating to the hiring of permanent replacements for economic strikers under the National Labor Relations Act.

(a)(1)Subject to the other provisions of this subdivision, an employer who orders a plant closing or mass layoff in violation of this article shall be liable to each aggrieved employee who suffers an employment loss as a result of the plant closing or mass layoff for both of the following:

(A)Backpay for each day of violation at a rate of compensation of the higher of the following:

(i)The average regular rate received by the employee during the last three years of the employee’s employment.

(ii)The final regular rate received by the employee.

(B)Benefits under an employee benefit plan, including the cost of medical expenses incurred during the employment loss that would have been covered under an employee benefit plan if the employment loss had not occurred.

(2)(A)Liability under paragraph (1) shall be calculated for the period of the violation up to a maximum of 60 days, but not for more than one-half the number of days the employee was employed by the employer.

(B)The amount for which an employer is liable under paragraph (1) shall be reduced by all of the following:

(i)Any wages paid by the employer to the employee for the period of the violation.

(ii)Any voluntary and unconditional payment by the employer to the employee that is not required by any legal obligation.

(iii)Any payment by the employer to a third party or trustee, such as premiums for health benefits or payments to a defined contribution pension plan, on behalf of and attributable to the employee for the period of the violation.

(C)Any liability incurred under paragraph (1) with respect to a defined benefit pension plan may be reduced by crediting the employee with service for all purposes under such a plan for the period of the violation.

(3)Any employer who violates the notice provision of this article with respect to a unit of local government shall be subject to a civil penalty of not more than five hundred dollars ($500) for each day of the violation. However, this penalty shall not apply if the employer pays to each aggrieved employee the amount for which the employer is liable to that employee within three weeks from the date the employer orders the plant closing or mass layoff.

(4)If an employer that has violated this article proves to the satisfaction of the court that the act or omission that violated this article was acting in good faith and that the employer had reasonable grounds for believing the act or omission was not a violation of this article, the court may, in its discretion, reduce the amount of the liability or penalty provided for in this section.

(5)A person seeking to enforce the employer’s liability under this subdivision, including, but not limited to, a representative of employees or a unit of local government that did not receive notice, may sue on behalf of themselves, on behalf of other persons similarly situated, or both, in superior court in the jurisdiction in which the violation is alleged to have occurred, or in which the employer transacts business. In any such suit, the court, in its discretion, may grant to the prevailing party reasonable attorney’s fees as part of the costs.

(b)A court shall not have the authority to enjoin a plant closing or mass layoff under this article.

(c)(1)The remedies provided for in this section shall be the exclusive remedy for any violation of this article.

(2)The rights and remedies provided to employees by this article are in addition to, and not in lieu of, any other contractual or statutory rights and remedies of the employees, and are not intended to alter or affect such rights and remedies. However, the period of notification required by this article shall run concurrently with any period of notification required by contract or any other law.

(d)Provision of notice under this article with good faith compliance shall not constitute a violation of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. Sec. 151 et seq.) or the Railway Labor Act (45 U.S.C. Sec. 151 et seq.)

An employer that is not required to comply with the notice requirements of this article is encouraged to provide, to the extent possible, notice to its employees about a proposal to close a plant or permanently reduce its workforce.

(a)The department shall adopt rules and regulations necessary to implement this article.

(b)The rules and regulations shall include, among other things, descriptions of the methods by which employers may provide for appropriate service of notice under this article. Those methods shall include, but are not limited to, mailing of notice to an employee’s last known address or inclusion of notice in the employee’s paycheck.

The department shall submit to the labor committees of the Assembly and Senate a report containing a detailed and objective analysis of the effects of this article on employers, with an emphasis on small- and medium-sized businesses, the economy with respect to international competitiveness, and employees in terms of levels and conditions of employment. The department shall assess both costs and benefits, including the effect on productivity, competitiveness, unemployment rates and compensation, and worker retraining and readjustment.

The department’s duties under this article shall be effective upon appropriation of the Legislature for purposes of administering this article.