Share:
Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2019 - 2020
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | November 20, 2019 01:46 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Christine M. Tartaglione |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Updating the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN Act) |
| In the near future, I plan on introducing a bill that would require workplaces to provide 180 day notice of plant closings of 50 of more employees and mass layoffs of 500 or more employees. This legislation would aim to ensure greater workplace stability and worker security for thousands of Pennsylvania employees. In 1988, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) was passed to require companies with more than 100 employees working an aggregate of at least 4,000 hours per week to provide a 60 day notice of plant closings or mass layoffs. In 2018, Delaware became the most recent state to enact a WARN Act on the state level. The Delaware law covers some employees not already covered by the federal law by reducing the number of aggregate hours per week to 2,000. Currently, the federal WARN Act is enforced on the state level by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor. However, 60 days does not provide a sufficient lead time for employees to adjust to a major change in their employment status. This past summer in Philadelphia, where I represent thousands of hard-working employees, there were two sudden mass layoffs in the span of a few weeks. At the Philadelphia Energy Solutions oil refinery, a fire forced the closure of the plant and the loss of jobs for nearly 700 hourly union workers and thousands of contractors. At Hahnemann University Hospital, significant financial losses led the owners to announce its closure of the course of several weeks, leaving more than 2,500 employees without jobs. Suddenly and without much warning, more than 4,000 individuals were left scrambling to find new jobs. Please join me in cosponsoring this important piece of legislation to make sure we are doing the best possible job of providing workers with stability and security and protecting workers rights. |