California WARN Act: Triggers, Notice, and Back Pay

The California WARN Act requires employers with 75 or more workers to give 60 days’ written notice before a mass layoff, plant closing, relocation, or the offshoring of a call center. It is stricter than the federal law of the same name, and an employer who skips or shortens that notice owes affected workers back pay and benefits for every day of the shortfall. The rules sit in California Labor Code sections 1400 through 1408.

Who Your Employer Must Be for the Law to Apply

Coverage turns on the size of the facility, not the company as a whole. Cal-WARN applies to any industrial or commercial facility (or part of one) that has employed 75 or more people at some point during the 12 months before notice would have been due. Both full-time and part-time workers count. Only employees who worked for the company for at least six months during that same 12-month window are counted toward the 75.¹

A parent company is treated as the employer of any facility that its subsidiary directly owns and operates. That closes the door on avoiding coverage by running a smaller operation through a subsidiary.¹

The Four Events That Require 60 Days’ Notice

Cal-WARN is triggered by four kinds of employer actions at a covered facility.

Plant Closure

A plant closure is a shutdown of all or substantially all of the operations at a covered facility. California, unlike federal law, sets no minimum number of affected workers. If the facility qualifies, the shutdown triggers notice even when only a few employees lose their jobs.¹

Mass Layoff

A mass layoff is 50 or more employees at a covered facility being let go for lack of work or lack of funds within any 30-day period. California counts heads only. There is no percentage-of-workforce requirement, so a 50-person cut at a large facility counts the same as a 50-person cut at a smaller one.¹

Relocation

A relocation means moving all or substantially all of a facility’s operations to a new site at least 100 miles away. Any number of affected workers is enough.¹

Call Center Offshoring

An employer that plans to move a call center, or a significant share of its call volume, out of the United States must give 60 days’ notice regardless of how many workers are affected. A call center for this purpose is a facility whose workers primarily handle incoming phone calls or electronic communications for customer service or similar functions. Federal WARN has no equivalent rule.²

When Notice Is Not Required

The exceptions are narrow, and this is where employers get into trouble. Cal-WARN excuses advance notice only when a layoff, closure, or relocation is caused by a physical calamity or an act of war. It does not recognize the federal law’s “unforeseeable business circumstances” exception. Losing a major contract, an unexpected revenue drop, or a sudden downturn does not relieve a California employer of the 60-day duty.³

The statute also carves out certain project-based and seasonal work. If a closure or layoff results from completing a specific project in broadcasting, motion picture production, or certain on-site construction and mining occupations, and the workers were hired with the understanding that the job would end with the project, no notice is required. Seasonal workers hired for a position they were told from the start was temporary and seasonal are also outside the law’s protection.⁴

What a Proper Notice Looks Like

A valid Cal-WARN notice is in writing and delivered at least 60 calendar days before the action takes effect. It goes to four recipients: the affected employees (or their union representative), the California Employment Development Department, the Local Workforce Development Board, and the chief elected official of both the city and the county where the worksite is located.³

The notice itself must state:

the effective date of the layoff, closure, or relocation, and whether the action is permanent or temporary;
the schedule on which separations will occur;
the job titles of affected positions and how many workers will be cut from each;
the name and contact information of a company official who can answer questions about the plan; and
a description of any services the employer plans to offer affected workers, with contact information for that support.

A verbal announcement at a staff meeting, a general press release, or an email that leaves out required content does not satisfy the law. If what you received was less than that, or arrived less than 60 days before your last day, the employer may already be in violation.

What You Are Owed if Your Employer Didn’t Give Notice

An employer that violates Cal-WARN faces two separate categories of liability.

Back Pay and Benefits to You

The employer owes each affected worker back pay and the value of lost benefits for every day of the violation. If you got 30 days of notice when you should have had 60, the violation period is 30 days. The maximum any one worker can recover is capped at either 60 days of pay and benefits or half the number of days you were employed by the company, whichever is less.⁵

Back pay is calculated using whichever is higher: your average rate of pay over your last three years with the company, or your final rate of pay. On top of wages, the employer must cover the value of benefits you would have received during the violation period, including the cost of medical expenses that would have been covered under an employer-sponsored health plan.⁵

Civil Penalties to the Government

Separately, the employer can be assessed civil penalties of up to $500 for each day it failed to notify the required government recipients. The employer can avoid that penalty entirely by paying every affected worker the full amount of back pay and benefits owed within three weeks of the date the layoff, closure, or relocation was ordered.⁶

What the Employer Can Deduct

The statute lets employers offset three things against what they owe you:

wages already paid to you during the violation period (accrued vacation pay does not count as an offset);
voluntary payments the employer made without conditions, as long as they weren’t required by a contract, personnel policy, or other legal obligation; and
payments the employer made to a third party or trustee for your benefit during the violation period.

Severance paid immediately after a short-notice layoff can shrink what a worker ultimately recovers, but only where the payments were genuinely voluntary and not owed under some other agreement.⁷

How to Enforce Your Rights

You do not have to wait for a government agency to act. Any affected individual, a local government, or an employee representative such as a union can file a civil lawsuit for a Cal-WARN violation. A single worker can also bring the case on behalf of others hit by the same violation, which functions much like a class action.⁸

If you win, the court can order the employer to pay your reasonable attorney’s fees as part of the costs of the lawsuit. That matters when the individual back-pay figure is modest, because lawyers know the fees are recoverable if the claim succeeds and are more willing to take the case on that basis.⁸

If you think your employer skipped notice or shortened it, hold on to your termination paperwork, any written or emailed notice you did receive, dated pay stubs, and any company-wide communications about the closing or layoff. Those documents establish the size of the facility, the date you were told, and the date your job actually ended, which are the three facts the case turns on.

1
California Legislative Information. California Labor Code LAB 1400
2
Employment Development Department. Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN)
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California Legislative Information. California Labor Code LAB 1401
4
Justia. California Code Labor Code Chapter 4 – Relocations, Terminations, and Mass Layoffs
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California Legislative Information. California Labor Code LAB 1402
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California Legislative Information. California Labor Code LAB 1403
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California Legislative Information. California Labor Code LAB 1402
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California Legislative Information. California Labor Code LAB 1404