The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act: Effects on Notice Provision

Abstract

The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) of 1988 requires that covered firms provide affected employees with 60 days' advance notice of plant closings and large-scale layoffs. The authors use data from the three most recent Displaced Worker Surveys to compare the extent of notice under voluntary (1983–88) and mandatory (1989–91) notice regimes. They find that the legislation has had at most a small impact on the provision of notice of the length stipulated under the Act. This non-event is at least partially due to the liberal firm-size and layoff thresholds for determining coverage under WARN.