What's happening
This bill expands written notice requirements for mass layoffs to include local governments, school districts, and emergency service providers.
Why it matters
Ensures local governments, including municipalities and school districts, are directly informed prior to mass layoffs. this enables them to anticipate potential impacts on tax revenue, public services, and community stability.
Requires notification to emergency service providers (police, fire, EMS) serving affected business locations. , so these agencies can plan for changes in demand, staffing, or public safety issues resulting from major employment shifts.
Expands transparency and coordination around mass layoffs. , giving local entities more time to prepare economic responses, offer support to displaced workers, and mitigate broader community effects.
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Who cares
Headline styles
Expand Layoff Notice Requirements
Plain English, a few words. Used as the page title.
Sponsors
History
- Committed to rules
- Advanced to third reading
- 2nd report cal.
- 1st report cal.363
- Referred to labor
Full text
1 pageUnderlined is new[Struck] is removedOfficial text on nysenate.gov ↗
STATE OF NEW YORK
7344
IN SENATE
January 21, 2020
Introduced by Sen. MAYER -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Labor
AN ACT to amend the labor law, in relation to written notice requirements for mass layoffs
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows:
Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 860-b of the labor law, as added by chapter 475 of the laws of 2008, is amended to read as follows:
1. An employer may not order a mass layoff, relocation, or employment loss, unless, at least ninety days before the order takes effect, the employer gives written notice of the order to the following:
(a) affected employees and the representatives of affected employees;
(b) the department; [and]
(c) the local workforce investment boards established pursuant to the federal Workforce Investment Act (P.L. 105-220) for the locality in which the mass layoff, relocation, or employment loss will occur;
(d) each locality in the state, including municipalities and school districts, to which the employer remitted taxes in the current year or the previous year; and
(e) each locality in the state which provides police, firefighting, emergency medical or ambulance services or other emergency services to real property where the employer has a place of business subject to the mass layoff, relocation, or employment loss, as applicable.
§ 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD14822-02-0
Reflowed for reading: line numbers and page breaks removed. Cite the official text.
Sponsor's memo
Title of bill
An act to amend the labor law, in relation to written notice require- ments for mass layoffs
Summary of provisions
Section 1 amends subdivision 1 of section 860-b of the labor law to add as additional recipients of required WARN Act notice: (1) each locality to which the employer paid taxes in the current year or the preceding year, including municipalities and school districts, and
(2) each locality that provides emergency services to properties of the employer where there is employment loss.
Section 2 sets the effective date.
Justification
On December 23, 2019, the Doral Arrowwood Resort in the Village of Rye Brook informed the Department of Labor and the Village of Rye Brook that it would be shutting down on January 12,2020, just 20 days later. It provided notice of this event to its approximately 275 employees the next day, Christmas Eve. While the Doral Arrowwood provided notice to the Village of Rye Brook in order to comply with federal WARN Act requirements, many officials from other communities in the area, despite such communities being deeply affected, discovered the situation as a result of reports in the press. The surrounding communities and the Blind Brook School District collectively relied on nearly $2,000,000 in tax revenue from the Doral Arrowwood, and the Doral Arrowwood provided certain maintenance services for adjacent developments. In addition, existing hotel facilities such as an on-site cogeneration facility, swimming pool, maintenance materials (including fuel and compressed gas), and stocked kitchen and bars presented significant maintenance and health and safety issues.
The federal WARN Act requires the employer to provide notice to the unit of local government in which the employer is located (and in the case of multiple such units of government, to the one to which the highest taxes were paid in the preceding year). The New York WARN Act has no require- ment that affected communities be notified, despite the scale and far- reaching effects of situations that trigger WARN Act compliance. This lack of notice presents risks in that, among other matters, (1) the communities may have to address health and safety dangers with respect to a large abandoned property, and (2) loss of revenue may require significant and immediate budgetary changes.
This bill requires employers with WARN Act notice obligations to notify affected communities and school districts(in addition to the existing requirement to notify employees, the Department of Labor, and local workforce investment boards) to ensure that these communities are aware of mass layoffs, plant closings, and major relocations. Receiving notice of these situations at the same time as other WARN Act notice recipients will enable these communities to react sooner and more effectively to manage situations such as the closing of the Doral Arrowwood that have a
significant impact on the well-being of their residents, essential service obligations, and revenue.
Prior legislative history
New bill
Fiscal implications
None
Effective date
Immediately
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.