California WARN Act Notice Rules for Layoffs of 50 or More Workers

The California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act, which the statute itself abbreviates as the Cal/WARN Act, is codified at Cal. Lab. Code § 1400 and the sections that follow it. It is one of the California labor laws that attach at the end of a job rather than during it, and its reach is deliberately narrow: larger worksites, and only three kinds of employer action.

Which employers and layoffs the act covers

Two definitions decide whether Cal/WARN applies at all, and both sit in Cal. Lab. Code § 1400.5. A “covered establishment” is any industrial or commercial facility, or part of one, that employs or has employed within the preceding 12 months 75 or more persons. A “mass layoff” is a layoff of 50 or more employees at a covered establishment during any 30-day period.

The 75-person count is not limited to full-time staff. The Employment Development Department states the test as employing 75 or more employees, full-time and part-time, in its WARN notice guidance for employers. That is the first place the state statute departs from the federal one, which counts only full-time employees toward its own coverage threshold.

Two other employer actions trigger the same notice. Under § 1400.5(e), a “relocation” is the removal of all or substantially all of a covered establishment’s operations to a different location 100 miles or more away. A “termination” is the cessation or substantial cessation of the establishment’s operations. Neither carries a headcount trigger of its own, so a relocation affecting a handful of workers at a 75-person site still requires notice.

Who counts as an “employee” is narrower than the payroll list. Section 1400.5(h) defines an employee as a person employed by the employer for at least 6 months of the 12 months preceding the date notice is required, which leaves recent hires out of the group entitled to notice. Section 1400.5(g) excludes certain project-based and seasonal work entirely.

Who must receive the 60-day notice

Cal. Lab. Code § 1401(a) states that an employer may not order a mass layoff, relocation, or termination at a covered establishment unless, 60 days before the order takes effect, it gives written notice to four recipients:

• The employees of the covered establishment affected by the order
• The Employment Development Department
• The local workforce development board
• The chief elected official of each city and county government within which the action occurs

All four have to receive the notice, and the two failures carry different consequences. An employer that files with the state but skips its own workforce has not cured anything.

The EDD accepts filings by email rather than through a form. Its WARN filing instructions direct employers to send the notice to [email protected] with the employer name in the subject line, the written notice attached as a DOC, DOCX, or PDF file, and contact information in the body of the email.

1. Confirm the site is a covered establishment

   Count everyone employed at the facility, full-time and part-time, at any point in the preceding 12 months. If that number reaches 75, the site is covered even if current headcount has fallen below it.

2. Fix the date the order takes effect

   The 60 days run backward from the date the mass layoff, relocation, or termination takes effect, not from the date the decision is made. Notices have to be received by the required parties at least 60 days in advance.

3. Identify the local recipients

   The local workforce development board and the chief elected official are specific to the site’s location. The EDD publishes a Local Workforce Development Area listing and a Rapid Response coordination contact list for identifying them.

4. File with the state and the local parties

   Email the assembled notice to the EDD address above, and separately deliver it to the Local Workforce Development Area and the chief elected official. Filing with the EDD alone does not satisfy § 1401(a)(2).

What the notice has to contain

Section 1401(b) requires the California notice to include the elements the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act requires, at 29 U.S.C. § 2101 et seq.: the site name and address, whether the action is permanent or temporary, whether the entire plant is closing, the expected date of the first separation, the schedule of later separations, the job titles affected and the number of workers in each, bumping rights, and the name and address of any union representing affected workers.

California added more through SB 617, effective January 1, 2026. Under Cal. Lab. Code § 1401(c)–(e), the notice must state whether the employer plans to coordinate services through the local workforce development board, through a different entity, or not at all; it must give a functioning email address and telephone number for the board along with the statutory description of rapid response activities; it must describe CalFresh, the CalFresh benefits helpline, and the program website; and it must give a functioning email address and telephone number for the employer. An employer that elects to coordinate services has 30 days from the date of the notice to arrange them.

The two exceptions to the 60-day rule

California recognizes fewer excuses for short notice than the federal statute does. Only two exist.

The first is a physical calamity or act of war. Cal. Lab. Code § 1401(f) states that an employer is not required to provide notice if the mass layoff, relocation, or termination is necessitated by a physical calamity or act of war. SB 617 moved this exception from subdivision (c) to subdivision (f) as of January 1, 2026, so older articles and charts citing “§ 1401(c)” for the calamity exception point at a subdivision that now covers something else.

The second is the faltering-company exception in Cal. Lab. Code § 1402.5. It applies only if the EDD determines that three conditions all existed: the employer was actively seeking capital or business at the time notice would have been required, the capital or business would have allowed the employer to avoid or postpone the relocation or termination, and the employer reasonably and in good faith believed that giving notice would have precluded it from obtaining that capital or business. The employer has to hand the department a written record of the relevant documents plus an affidavit verifying them, signed under penalty of perjury.

The EDD’s WARN questions and answers direct an employer that cannot give the full 60 days to file the notice anyway and include an explanation of why the period was short. Filing late is not a defense the statute recognizes, but it puts the state and the local board on notice so rapid response services can start.

What a missed notice costs the employer

The two notice failures are penalized separately, and the distinction is frequently reported wrong.

Missing the employee notice triggers Cal. Lab. Code § 1402. The employer is liable to each employee entitled to notice who lost employment for back pay at the higher of the employee’s average regular rate of compensation over the last three years or the final rate of compensation, plus the value of benefits the employee would have received, including medical expenses an employee benefit plan would have covered. Liability runs for the period of the violation, capped at 60 days or one-half the number of days the employee worked for the employer, whichever is smaller. Section 1402(c) reduces the total by wages paid during the violation period, by voluntary and unconditional payments the employer was not legally obligated to make, and by payments to third parties such as health premiums attributable to the employee.

Missing the government notice triggers Cal. Lab. Code § 1403, a civil penalty of not more than $500 for each day of the violation. That penalty drops away if the employer pays every affected employee the amounts owed under § 1402 within three weeks of ordering the mass layoff, relocation, or termination.

Enforcement sits with the Labor Commissioner. Cal. Lab. Code § 1406 authorizes the commissioner to examine an employer’s books and records, to investigate an alleged violation, to order temporary relief while an investigation is pending, and to issue citations using the procedures in Labor Code § 1197.1. Affected employees can also sue directly for the § 1402 amounts.

Where the federal WARN Act differs

Employers large enough to hit both statutes have to satisfy both, and the requirements do not line up.

29 U.S.C. § 2102(a) sets the same 60-day period, but sends notice to the representative of affected employees where one exists, to the state rapid response entity, and to the chief elected official of the local government where the closing or layoff occurs. Federal coverage starts at 100 or more full-time employees, against California’s 75 full-time and part-time, according to the comparison chart the EDD publishes with its WARN guidance.

Federal law also allows shorter notice in situations California does not. 29 U.S.C. § 2102(b) permits a shortened period where the employer was actively seeking capital or business, where the closing or layoff was caused by business circumstances not reasonably foreseeable when notice would have been due, and where the action follows a natural disaster. An employer relying on any of those has to give as much notice as is practicable along with a brief statement of the basis for the shorter period. Section 2102(d) separately aggregates sub-threshold groups of employment losses at a single site within any 90-day period, so a federal-covered employer cannot split one layoff into waves; the California statute has no counterpart.

What comes next for laid-off workers

A layoff is an employer-initiated separation, which puts the wage payout on the schedule set by California final paycheck law rather than the longer schedule that applies when an employee quits. Accrued but unused vacation is treated as earned wages in that final payment, covered in more detail under the rules for PTO payout in California.

A WARN notice does not require severance, and a severance agreement does not substitute for notice. The back pay described in Cal. Lab. Code § 1402 is a remedy for a missed notice period, not a separate entitlement that attaches whenever a covered layoff happens. Where an employer does offer a package, the release that normally comes with it is governed by a separate set of rules, covered in California severance pay and release agreements.

Unemployment benefits run on their own track and do not wait for the notice period to end. The filing sequence is set out in how to apply for unemployment in California. Workers at a noticed site can also reach rapid response services through the America’s Job Center of California network, using the board contact information the notice itself must now carry.