Heard from a manager friend of mine that the updated 2021 employee handbook which is coming out shortly has deleted any reference to a 60-day notice period in the case of a displacement. Can anyone confirm?
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True yzw+18MzASzO, but the thing that's being over looked there is that the mind of an HR person / department has an aversion to inconsistent treatment of employees. Smells like risk and a hassle, and is usually more trouble than it's worth. So while the law may not require all layoffs to have a notice, it's simpler and lower risk to just treat everyone the same in this regard rather than investing the time / money / effort to determine which people must legally have notice vs. others that the law doesn't require the same notice period.
Janice
The facts are that this was NOT in the manager's email that went out yesterday. So regardless of the debate about whether WARN act is/isn't applicable... the initial teaser that started this thread is not accurate.
100% Correct ▶️ - Post ID: @yzw+18MzASzO r
john
All of these people quoting the WARN act and it mandating 60 days of pay for a layoff - that is incorrect. It's about a notice period that a large group will be impacted in one location. Since it can be tricky to determine the requirements, many large companies just provide a blanket 60 days notice and then allow for some or all of it to be non-working so they can get the impacted people out without much fuss.
The WARN act requires that 60 days notice be given if laying off a single site over a certain number of people. For example, if an employer is closing a plant or severely cutting the staff in a location they they need to notify those affected 60 days before it happens. It isn't 60 days pay - it's 60 days formal notice of a position elimination. So say I work in a location that has 500 people in it and the company lays off 100 of them? Nope, no WARN required since 100 is below the defined 500 in one location or 50-499 > 33% in one location. If they bumped up the number to 200 in one location then they'd need to notice. If they close an entire office of 48 people, then no WARN notice required since it's below the 50 threshold.
manager here. aforementioned email has links to a document that has all the changes that will be forthcoming in the Jan 11 handbook. nothing about notice period changing.
As others on this string have posted, 60 days is required nationwide by the WARN act (90 days in NY)
the 45 days is the time you have to sign and return the severance agreement.
The Employee Handbook doesn’t have a year. It’s updated as needed. Last update was August, next update will be available next week.
The 45 days in the benefit book is number of days you have to sign agreement, not related to length of continuation of pay.
More people messing around to get a reaction.
Anyone can read the WARN Act on the Dept of Labor site. The Act provides some limited weasel room for a company to avoid providing full 60 days, I don't believe Wells would qualify.
@OP is correct. I compared the Salary Continuation sections from the 2021 benefits book to the 2020 and 2019 books. Each new year, I pull the benefits book and go right to the severance sections to see if the pay schedule has changed (it has not changed for 2021).
The previous books specifically mentioned receiving a 60 calendar day "notice period", which may be all working, all non-working, or divided between both.
The 2021 book states that the notice period will be a non-working period unless your business unit says in writing that a portion of that time will be working. During the non-working period, you will not have access to WF systems or secured premises. There is no longer any mention of the 60 day period.
This info is on page 16-8 of the 2021 benefits book.
The OP sounds like they're from HR trying to encourage attrition.
It’s really disheartening to observe the very low reading comprehension skills of WF employees.
WF can’t ignore the WARN act, the benefits book does not say it is attempting to do so.
The 45 day language has nothing to do with the notice period required by WARN, the weeks of severance haven’t changed, and the only update was COVID stuff - they very clearly mark the updated items. Come on people
During the nonworking notice you have a 45-day Agreement review period (aka accepting the severance package). If you don't sign during the 45-day period then you go on unpaid leave of absence. I don't know how this was worded in the past (was it 60 days?) so I can't say if this really means the nonworking notice for someone who signed has been reduced from 60 to 45. Seems possible but honestly I can live with that.
More important to me is that I see the severance REMAINS at 2 weeks per year of service!
I guess we can cross out Employees giving 2 weeks notice, can be same day now?
As long as they haven't updated the 2-weeks of severance per year of service to just 1-week, this doesn't matter that much IMO.
who really cares even if that's true? 45 vs 60 days shouldn't break anyone.
I would question the legality as the Warn act requires a 60 day notice period. I know each state might have different criteria but in general it is 60 days.
They were correct, if I am reading correctly. The 2021 Benefits Book is now posted in Teamwork’s. The notice period appears to be 45-days non-working, unless written notification otherwise. Min. 8 week Salary continuation based on service thereafter, with signed waiver before the notice period is up.
Definitely open for correction if anyone in HR wants to weigh in.
can confirm. this came out in a managers only email this morning.
Yeah, I'd put this in the "believe it when I see it" catagory. Not saying it's not possible, I just don't know.
Fake news
Your friend misled you. The 60 day warn notice is and will always be a part of the Wells lay off package. Period. End of discussion on this topic.