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Title 29, LaborRelease 119-110

§2102 Notice Required Before Plant Closings and Mass Layoffs

Title 29 › CHAPTER 23 — WORKER ADJUSTMENT AND RETRAINING NOTIFICATION › § 2102

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

Employers must give a written 60-day notice before a plant closing or a big layoff. The notice must go to the workers’ representative or, if there is none, to each affected worker. The employer must also tell the State rapid-response office and the chief elected local official where the closing or layoff will happen. If there is more than one local government, tell the one that got the most taxes from the employer last year. An employer can cut the 60 days short in a few cases: if they were actively trying to get money or business and honestly thought giving notice would stop that; if sudden, unforeseeable business events force the action; or for natural disasters like floods, earthquakes, or droughts. When shorter notice is used, the employer must give as much notice as possible and a short explanation why. If a layoff announced as six months or less goes past six months, it counts as an employment loss unless the extension was unforeseeable and notice is given when it becomes clear. Losses from two or more groups at one site within 90 days that together meet the law’s minimum count as a closing or mass layoff unless the employer proves they were separate actions.

Full Legal Text

Title 29, §2102

Labor, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Notice to employees, State dislocated worker units, and local governments
An employer shall not order a plant closing or mass layoff until the end of a 60-day period after the employer serves written notice of such an order—
(1)to each representative of the affected employees as of the time of the notice or, if there is no such representative at that time, to each affected employee; and
(2)to the State or entity designated by the State to carry out rapid response activities under section 3174(a)(2)(A) of this title, and the chief elected official of the unit of local government within which such closing or layoff is to occur.
If there is more than one such unit, the unit of local government which the employer shall notify is the unit of local government to which the employer pays the highest taxes for the year preceding the year for which the determination is made.
(b)Reduction of notification period
(1)An employer may order the shutdown of a single site of employment before the conclusion of the 60-day period if as of the time that notice would have been required the employer was actively seeking capital or business which, if obtained, would have enabled the employer to avoid or postpone the shutdown and the employer reasonably and in good faith believed that giving the notice required would have precluded the employer from obtaining the needed capital or business.
(2)(A)An employer may order a plant closing or mass layoff before the conclusion of the 60-day period if the closing or mass layoff is caused by business circumstances that were not reasonably foreseeable as of the time that notice would have been required.
(B)No notice under this chapter shall be required if the plant closing or mass layoff is due to any form of natural disaster, such as a flood, earthquake, or the drought currently ravaging the farmlands of the United States.
(3)An employer relying on this subsection shall give as much notice as is practicable and at that time shall give a brief statement of the basis for reducing the notification period.
(c)Extension of layoff period
A layoff of more than 6 months which, at its outset, was announced to be a layoff of 6 months or less, shall be treated as an employment loss under this chapter unless—
(1)the extension beyond 6 months is caused by business circumstances (including unforeseeable changes in price or cost) not reasonably foreseeable at the time of the initial layoff; and
(2)notice is given at the time it becomes reasonably foreseeable that the extension beyond 6 months will be required.
(d)Determinations with respect to employment loss
For purposes of this section, in determining whether a plant closing or mass layoff has occurred or will occur, employment losses for 2 or more groups at a single site of employment, each of which is less than the minimum number of employees specified in section 2101(a)(2) or (3) of this title but which in the aggregate exceed that minimum number, and which occur within any 90-day period shall be considered to be a plant closing or mass layoff unless the employer demonstrates that the employment losses are the result of separate and distinct actions and causes and are not an attempt by the employer to evade the requirements of this chapter.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2014—Subsec. (a)(2). Pub. L. 113–128 substituted “the State or entity designated by the State to carry out rapid response activities under section 3174(a)(2)(A) of this title,” for “the State or entity designated by the State to carry out rapid response activities under section 2864(a)(2)(A) of this title,”. 1998—Subsec. (a)(2). Pub. L. 105–277, § 101(f) [title VIII, § 405(f)(18)], struck out “the State dislocated worker unit or office (referred to in section 1661(b)(2) of this title), or” before “the State or entity”. Pub. L. 105–277, § 101(f) [title VIII, § 405(d)(26)], substituted “to the State dislocated worker unit or office (referred to in section 1661(b)(2) of this title), or the State or entity designated by the State to carry out rapid response activities under section 2864(a)(2)(A) of this title, and the chief” for “to the State dislocated worker unit (designated or created under title III of the Job Training Partnership Act) and the chief”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

of 2014 AmendmentAmendment by Pub. L. 113–128 effective on the first day of the first full program year after
July 22, 2014 (
July 1, 2015), see section 506 of Pub. L. 113–128, set out as an

Effective Date

note under section 3101 of this title.

Effective Date

of 1998 AmendmentAmendment by section 101(f) [title VIII, § 405(d)(26)] of Pub. L. 105–277 effective Oct. 21, 1998, and amendment by section 101(f) [title VIII, § 405(f)(18)] of Pub. L. 105–277 effective July 1, 2000, see section 101(f) [title VIII, § 405(g)(1), (2)(B)] of Pub. L. 105–277, set out as a note under section 3502 of Title 5, Government Organization and Employees.

Effective Date

Section effective 6 months after Aug. 4, 1988, see section 11 of Pub. L. 100–379, set out as a note under section 2101 of this title.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

29 U.S.C. § 2102

Title 29, Labor

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110