The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) requires 60 day advance notice of an impending closing or mass layoff affecting a minimum of 50 employees.  Employers closing smaller operations generally assume that WARN does not apply to those business decisions.  However, in some circumstances, employees outside of a physical location can be included with those employed at a larger operation.  In Meson v. GATX Technology Services Corp., the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (which includes North and South Carolina) rejected a WARN claim from an employee at a satellite office who claimed that she should have been notified along with employees at the larger headquarters operation.

The plaintiff worked at a three-person Virginia branch of a Florida company.  She frequently traveled, and reported to the Tampa headquarters of the employer.  When the company’s assets were sold, and the plaintiff was not offered a job with the purchaser, she claimed that she should have received WARN notice along with the headquarters employees.  She based her claim on a Department of Labor regulation issued under WARN stating that for workers whose jobs involve extensive travel, their location for WARN purposes is the worksite from where they are supervised, in this case, Tampa.

The Fourth Circuit rejected this claim, affirming summary judgment for the employer.  The court concluded that the DOL rule does not apply to traveling employees with a fixed worksite other than the headquarters operation.  It applies only to truly mobile employees who primarily work out of their homes or vehicles.  In this case, the plaintiff clearly worked from the Virginia location.  This location was a fixed place of work, and was too small to trigger WARN notice requirements.  By agreeing with the plaintiff, WARN notice would be required for virtually any branch manager who travels and who reports to a headquarters operation.