Int'l Bhd. of Boilermakers v. Nassco Holdings Inc.

*1111 Under a California law known as the California WARN Act, employers must provide 60 days' notice to affected employees before ordering a "mass layoff." ( Lab. Code, § 1400 et seq. ) 1 A labor union and several employees sued an employer, alleging the employer violated this law by failing to provide notice before ordering about 90 employees not to return to work for four to five weeks. The employer countered that the California WARN Act was inapplicable because its action was a temporary furlough and not a "mass layoff." All parties recognized there was no liability under the parallel federal WARN Act because the federal law applies to a temporary layoff only if the layoff "exceed[s] 6 months." ( 29 U.S.C. § 2101 (a)(6)(B).)

The parties filed cross summary judgment/adjudication motions raising primarily the duty issue: did the employer have a statutory duty to notify the affected employees even though the layoff was temporary, rather than permanent? The superior court concluded the California WARN Act did apply to the employer's temporary layoff, and therefore the employer owed a statutory notification duty to the affected workers. The court thus granted summary adjudication…