Washington has passed the “Securing Timely Notification and Benefits for Laid-Off Employees Act,” requiring covered employers to provide at least 60 days’ notice before a business closing or mass layoff. A “covered employer” is a person who employs 50 or more employees in Washington, excluding part-time employees.
Specifically, a covered employer must provide notice before it orders a:
- “business closing” where it permanently or temporarily shuts down a single site of employment that result in an employment loss for 50 or more employees, excluding part-time employees; or
- “mass layoff” where there is a reduction in the employment force that is not the result of a business closing but that causes employment loss for 50 or more employees during a 30-day period, excluding part-time employees.
An employer must give notice to the Washington State Employment Security Department, and either the affected employee or if the employee is represented by a union, the affected employee’s bargaining representative. An “affected employee” is an employee who may reasonably expect to experience employment loss because of a proposed business closing or mass layoff.
The notice must be written and include the requirements of the federal WARN Act. The notice must also include:
- the name and address of the site where the business closing or mass layoff will occur;
- the name and contact information of a company official to contact for further information;
- a statement of whether the planned action is expected to be permanent or temporary;
- if the entire business is to be closed, a statement to that effect;
- if the planned action is expected to be temporary, the statement must include whether the planned action is expected to last longer or shorter than three months;
- the expected date of the first employment loss and the anticipated schedule for employment losses;
- the job titles of positions to be affected and the names of the employees currently holding affected jobs; and
- whether the mass layoff or business closing is the result of, or will result in, the relocation or contracting out of the employer’s operations or the affected employees’ positions.
An employer does not have to provide 60-days’ notice if:
- at the time notice would be required, the employer is: (1) actively seeking capital or business; (2) the employer reasonably in good faith believes that advance notice would preclude its ability to obtain the capital or business; and (3) this new capital or business would allow the employer to avoid or postpone the shutdown for a reasonable period;
- the closing or mass layoff is caused by business circumstances that were not reasonably foreseeable at the time notice would have been required;
- a plant closing, or mass layoff is the direct result of a natural disaster;
- the mass layoff is the result of the completion of a construction project and the affected employees were hired with the understanding that their employment was limited to the duration of the project; or
- the mass layoff is the result of the completion of a multiemployer construction project employing persons who are subject to a full union referral or dispatch system.
An employer may not include an employee in a mass layoff if the employee is currently on paid family or medical leave unless the mass layoff is the result of an unforeseeable business circumstance, a natural disaster, the completion of a construction project, or the completion of a multiemployer construction project.
The Act is effective July 27, 2025.
