WARN Act and Phased Layoffs — When a Plant Closes in Stages, Each Wave Needs Its Own Notice

Many plant closings do not happen on a single day. One department leaves in November, another in December, and the last crew locks up in January. Workers in later waves often assume the first announcement covered everyone. It does not: the 60-day notice clock runs against each worker's own separation date, not the day the closing was first announced.

The basic rule, wave by wave

The WARN Act requires covered employers — generally those with 100 or more full-time employees — to give at least 60 calendar days' written notice of a plant closing affecting 50 or more workers, or a mass layoff meeting the law's thresholds. When a closing is phased, each wave of separations is its own employment loss with its own deadline. A notice handed out 60 days before the first wave does not satisfy the law for workers leaving 90 days later, unless that notice also named their later date and arrived a full 60 days before it.

Employers typically issue a separate notice per wave, or one notice listing each wave's dates. Either way, the test is the same. If your last day is December 31, your notice should have reached you by early November.

A real two-wave example

A recent California filing shows how this looks in the data. LeeMAH Electronics in Brisbane, California, filed notices covering 205 workers effective October 16, 2026, and a further 62 workers effective December 21, 2026, at the same address. Anyone reading only the first wave would have understated the filing by nearly a quarter.

Staggered dates are common across the current WARN data. Layoff Atlas's upcoming-weeks figures show successive heavy weeks rather than one single cliff: 2,683 reported workers with effective dates in the week of November 2, 6,617 in the week of November 9, 6,145 in the week of November 16, 6,207 in the week of November 23, and 5,682 in the week of November 30. Some are separate employers; some are successive waves from the same employer.

Why employers phase closings — and why splitting can backfire

Phasing is often legitimate: equipment moves in stages and a skeleton crew stays to decommission a site. But splitting a layoff into smaller waves does not automatically dodge the law. The WARN Act's 90-day aggregation rule combines employment losses within any 90-day period at a single site of employment, unless the employer can show the losses had separate and distinct causes. An employer that cuts 40 workers in November and 40 more in January at the same plant cannot simply claim each wave fell below the 50-worker threshold — the two waves may aggregate into one covered mass layoff, and notice may be owed for both.

The reverse trap matters too. Workers sometimes assume that because a first wave of 60 was covered, a second wave of 30 at the same site is automatically covered as well. It may be, through aggregation, or it may not be, if the second wave genuinely has a separate cause. The notice should state the reason, job titles, and expected dates.

Transfers between waves

Phased closings often come with transfer offers, and transfers change the count. A worker offered a transfer to another site within reasonable commuting distance is generally not counted as an employment loss. But an offer to relocate hundreds of miles away is not the same as a transfer across town. If your wave's notice mentions transfers, read the location carefully — and keep the offer in writing.

When a wave's date moves

Phased schedules slip. A December wave becomes a January wave, or an early wave is brought forward. When dates change, ask for a fresh written notice naming the new date. An old notice naming a different date may not cover the new one, and a notice arriving less than 60 days before the revised date leaves the employer exposed to the same liability as a missing notice.

What to check if you are in a later wave

First, find your own date: your notice should name the expected date of your separation, not just the date the plant closes. Second, count back 60 calendar days from that date and check when you actually received the notice. Third, ask whether earlier or later waves at your site could aggregate with yours, especially if each wave alone looks small. Fourth, check your state's mini-WARN law, which may be stricter than federal law — California and New York, for example, require longer notice in some cases — and those state rules apply wave by wave as well.

Finally, remember that a WARN notice is a notice, not a payment. It does not guarantee severance, though severance may be owed under a contract, a union agreement, or a state law. What the notice gives you is time to file for unemployment, arrange health coverage, and plan. In a phased closing, that time belongs to every wave, not just the first.

These figures are reported plans, not confirmed job losses: plans change, dates move, and some announced cuts never happen — which is why each wave's notice deserves its own check.

Data source: Layoff Atlas. National figures, November 2, 2026: 669 notices, 64,125 reported workers, 90-day window, 28 counts unavailable; top states California (17,612), Washington (17,306), Illinois (3,677), Texas (3,114), Virginia (2,373).