Alert Laid off Employees in Reasonable Time Act

Alert Laid Off Employees in Reasonable Time Act - Amends the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act to require an employer to give 60-day written notice to employees and to appropriate state and local government officials before ordering a mass layoff that results in an employment loss for a single employer at more than one site of employment during a 30-day period for: (1) at least 33% of the employees (excluding part-time employees); and (2) at least 50 or 500 employees (excluding part-time employees).

Makes an employer who violates such notice requirements liable to each aggrieved employee for double the back pay (under current law, only the back pay) for each day of the violation for up to 60 days.

[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2077 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2077

   To amend the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act to 
  require notifications under that Act for mass layoffs that occur at 
    more than one site of an employer and to increase penalties for 
                         violation of the Act.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 23, 2009

    Mr. Gutierrez (for himself, Mrs. Napolitano, Mr. Lipinski, Mr. 
Grijalva, and Mr. Rothman of New Jersey) introduced the following bill; 
       which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act to 
  require notifications under that Act for mass layoffs that occur at 
    more than one site of an employer and to increase penalties for 
                         violation of the Act.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Alert Laid off Employees in 
Reasonable Time Act''.

SEC. 2. MASS LAYOFFS OF A SINGLE EMPLOYER AT MULTIPLE SITES.

    (a) In General.--Section 2(a)(3) of the Worker Adjustment and 
Retraining Notification Act (29 U.S.C. 2101(a)(3)) is amended--
            (1) in subparagraph (B)(ii) by inserting ``or'' after the 
        semicolon; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
                    ``(C) results in an employment loss for a single 
                employer at more than 1 site of employment during any 
                30-day period for--
                            ``(i)(I) at least 33 percent of the 
                        employees of the employer (excluding any part-
                        time employees); and
                            ``(II) at least 50 employees (excluding any 
                        part-time employees); or
                            ``(ii) at least 500 employees (excluding 
                        any part-time employees);''.
    (b) Conforming Amendment.--Section 3(a)(2) of such Act (29 U.S.C. 
2102(a)(2)) is amended by striking ``to the State'' and inserting ``in 
the case of a plant closing or mass layoff described in section 
2(a)(3)(B), to the State''.

SEC. 3. INCREASED PENALTIES.

    Section 5(a)(1)(A) of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining 
Notification Act (29 U.S.C. 2104(a)(1)(A)) is amended by striking 
``back pay'' and inserting ``two times the amount of back pay''.
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