Amazing the things you can stumble upon. Today I was reading an article in the online edition of the San Jose Mercury-News when I noticed a sidebar link for a California Layoffs Database.
The database is aggregated from advance layoff notifications given under the WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Act. My curiosity was to see if my company was on the list (it wasn't, confirming what I thought), but I was struck by some of companies that are planning huge layoffs.
Such as: the San Francisco Chronicle, which by the numbers listed looks almost as if it is going out of business; JPMorgan Chase, which appears to be gutting every banking branch in the state; USAA, my insurer, which is planning a grand total of two layoffs in Sacramento; and retailer Gottschalks, which is actually shutting down, I believe.
The site also incorporates a search function, so you can enter your company's name and location, or you can search by either company or city.
The site provides a type of morbid satisfaction where one can say to oneself, "There but for the grace of (fill in your religion's deity) go I," or if the other shoe is falling, "Uh, oh! What do I do now?"
Showing posts with label WARN Act. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WARN Act. Show all posts
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Some New Year's for the People's Republic
China ushered in the Year of the Ox yesterday (today in the U.S.) amid deepening economic and social woes.
It's hard to get the truth out of the People's Republic, which is anything but a republic, but the year just closed saw some 18,000 businesses close, mostly in the southeast, and at least 2 million (some would say 10 million) workers laid off. Economic growth has slowed to about 7 percent or so (again, the truth is hard to ascertain since the government concocts, er, tabulates the growth rate), and all these woes have put the government on edge.
In the U.S., we have the WARN Act (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act) that applies to businesses with 50 or more employees, requiring them to give 60 days' advance notice of undertaking mass layoffs or ceasing operations. In the PRC, there's the new Labor Contract Law and other initiatives that require businesses to alert the government in advance of any layoffs of 20 employees, or 10 percent of the workforce.
However, the laws are proving hard to enforce as many business owners simply shut down shop and disappear, leaving their workers without jobs or the money owed them. In some cases, local governments have had to move in and pay the workers themselves to quell potential rioting.
Since many of the plant closings involved operations staffed mostly by migrant workers, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions (again, who knows for sure?), of these roving employees are being forced back to the hinterlands from the industrialized cities, adding to a cadre of malcontented citizens. In addition, there are at least 1.5 million college graduates from summer 2008 who have yet to find jobs, with another few million set to join their ranks this summer. It could portend an explosive mix in a land that touts economic freedom but practices political and civil repression.
We'll just have to wait and see if the Year of the Ox ends up seeing the unelected lords of China--who last year had to suppress an uprising in Lhasa, Tibet--getting themselves gored by an unhappy, suppressed population.
It's hard to get the truth out of the People's Republic, which is anything but a republic, but the year just closed saw some 18,000 businesses close, mostly in the southeast, and at least 2 million (some would say 10 million) workers laid off. Economic growth has slowed to about 7 percent or so (again, the truth is hard to ascertain since the government concocts, er, tabulates the growth rate), and all these woes have put the government on edge.
In the U.S., we have the WARN Act (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act) that applies to businesses with 50 or more employees, requiring them to give 60 days' advance notice of undertaking mass layoffs or ceasing operations. In the PRC, there's the new Labor Contract Law and other initiatives that require businesses to alert the government in advance of any layoffs of 20 employees, or 10 percent of the workforce.
However, the laws are proving hard to enforce as many business owners simply shut down shop and disappear, leaving their workers without jobs or the money owed them. In some cases, local governments have had to move in and pay the workers themselves to quell potential rioting.
Since many of the plant closings involved operations staffed mostly by migrant workers, hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions (again, who knows for sure?), of these roving employees are being forced back to the hinterlands from the industrialized cities, adding to a cadre of malcontented citizens. In addition, there are at least 1.5 million college graduates from summer 2008 who have yet to find jobs, with another few million set to join their ranks this summer. It could portend an explosive mix in a land that touts economic freedom but practices political and civil repression.
We'll just have to wait and see if the Year of the Ox ends up seeing the unelected lords of China--who last year had to suppress an uprising in Lhasa, Tibet--getting themselves gored by an unhappy, suppressed population.
Monday, January 12, 2009
Warning About WARN for Employers
The WARN Act (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) specifies that 60 days' notice must be given in firms with more than 100 full-time employees when large-scale layoffs are going to take place. The act kicks in when 50 employees at one location are laid off within a 30-day period, or when 33 percent of the workfoce is laid off, or when 500 employees are laid off (regardless of the percentage of the workforce).
However--and there are a lot of howevers in WARN--the window extends to 90 days when the layoffs are staggered but reach those same thresholds in combination. ("Caught you trying to cheat!" is the emphasis here.)
Here's another however: WARN defines full-time employees as those who have averaged at least 20 hours per week in six of the past 12 months, or another definition--if the entire workforce averages 4,000 hours per week excluding overtime.
I bring this up for a couple of reasons. One is that the incoming Obama administration has been loud about extending the 60-day notification to 90 days. The other is that just this week one union at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago (remember the showdown over WARN during that factory shutdown?) filed suit to force the owners to return equipment to the Chicago site that was reportedly relocated before closing.
Now, here's the interesting part: The union alleges that Republic's owners ferreted away the machinery in the middle of the night to a location in Indiana, where they intended to set up new, non-union operations, and then told the workers that the Chicago firm was shutting down because Bank of America wouldn't extend them a line of credit.
If this is true, it brings to light a fascinating new wrinkle and shows that Republic did indeed scheme to avoid WARN.
In the end, to avoid a public relations nightmare, BofA forked over about $1.5 million to Republic, and the workers received 60 days of pay and benefits.
Which brings up the final point: There's no way an employer would want dozens of laid-off workers sitting around the workplace for 60 days while knowing they're getting the axe. It's doubtful they'd do much constructive work, and it's likely that pilferage and sabotage would take place. Pay them 60 days' worth and see them off.
So, if the Obama team manages to up the WARN stakes, many companies will face paying three months of wages and benefits just to downsize in an effort to survive in tough economic times.
Better to gid rid of them now! LOL Just kidding, of course.
However--and there are a lot of howevers in WARN--the window extends to 90 days when the layoffs are staggered but reach those same thresholds in combination. ("Caught you trying to cheat!" is the emphasis here.)
Here's another however: WARN defines full-time employees as those who have averaged at least 20 hours per week in six of the past 12 months, or another definition--if the entire workforce averages 4,000 hours per week excluding overtime.
I bring this up for a couple of reasons. One is that the incoming Obama administration has been loud about extending the 60-day notification to 90 days. The other is that just this week one union at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago (remember the showdown over WARN during that factory shutdown?) filed suit to force the owners to return equipment to the Chicago site that was reportedly relocated before closing.
Now, here's the interesting part: The union alleges that Republic's owners ferreted away the machinery in the middle of the night to a location in Indiana, where they intended to set up new, non-union operations, and then told the workers that the Chicago firm was shutting down because Bank of America wouldn't extend them a line of credit.
If this is true, it brings to light a fascinating new wrinkle and shows that Republic did indeed scheme to avoid WARN.
In the end, to avoid a public relations nightmare, BofA forked over about $1.5 million to Republic, and the workers received 60 days of pay and benefits.
Which brings up the final point: There's no way an employer would want dozens of laid-off workers sitting around the workplace for 60 days while knowing they're getting the axe. It's doubtful they'd do much constructive work, and it's likely that pilferage and sabotage would take place. Pay them 60 days' worth and see them off.
So, if the Obama team manages to up the WARN stakes, many companies will face paying three months of wages and benefits just to downsize in an effort to survive in tough economic times.
Better to gid rid of them now! LOL Just kidding, of course.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Straight Out of Dickens: Labor Strife in China
You might think it was the early phase of the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain if you visited South China these days.
Guangdong Province is the manufacturing heartland of China, and its factories supply a lot of what we Americans find at Wal-Mart and many other retail stores, especially toys.
But things are getting tough in China, by many standards tougher than we have it here in the U.S.
First, under pressure from Wal-Mart and other large-scale buyers, China officially raised the minimum wage, but that didn't stop Wal-Mart from simultaneously demanding lower costs. Profits, at least for the toymakers, sank immediately.
Then came higher fuel costs and now the recession in the U.S., and factory after factory in Guangdong began shutting down; factory hands were let go en masse, many of them migrant workers whose families back home in distant provinces depend on them for monthly cash infusions--and bare survival.
Since the beginning of 2008, some 3,600 toy factories have gone under, leaving hundreds of thousands without work, yet China still publishes an official unemployment rate of 4 percent.
Now, the workers are fighting back--literally. Dongguan, the city where the toy manufacturers are concentrated, has witnessed several episodes of laid-off workers' occupying and trashing the factories after they're closed. Riot police have been called in. Scenes have gotten ugly. Tensions are understandably high, as is anxiety for the future.
But since the owners of the factories often disappear into the hinterlands after closing shop, local authorities are usually powerless to collect back wages, let alone enforce severance packages. In some cases, the government--hoping to keep face--has itself coughed up the workers' earnings.
As it stands, Chinese factory workers toil up to 80 or more hours a week (when times are good) for the princely sum of 770 yuan a month, about $118. Overtime is almost never paid.
In the States, we just witnessed the employee occupation in Chicago of Republic Windows and Doors, which was abruptly shuttered after Bank of America closed its line of credit to the firm.
The laid-off workers demanded 60 days' wages and benefits under the WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Act since that law requires firms to give 60 days' advance warning of mass layouts (unless there is an unforeseen emergency, a gray area).
Just last night I heard that BofA was going to advance Republic a $1.2-million loan to remunerate the fired employees.
So, the employees won, evidently, but I have one question:
How is Republic going to repay BofA if it's no longer operating the factory?
(I just learned, but I don't know if it's accurate, that the sum is actually $1.75 million and that it will go into a fund with money from both JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America. This would seem to indicate that it's not a loan, but a publilc relations tactic to counter consumer and public ill will toward the banks.)
Guangdong Province is the manufacturing heartland of China, and its factories supply a lot of what we Americans find at Wal-Mart and many other retail stores, especially toys.
But things are getting tough in China, by many standards tougher than we have it here in the U.S.
First, under pressure from Wal-Mart and other large-scale buyers, China officially raised the minimum wage, but that didn't stop Wal-Mart from simultaneously demanding lower costs. Profits, at least for the toymakers, sank immediately.
Then came higher fuel costs and now the recession in the U.S., and factory after factory in Guangdong began shutting down; factory hands were let go en masse, many of them migrant workers whose families back home in distant provinces depend on them for monthly cash infusions--and bare survival.
Since the beginning of 2008, some 3,600 toy factories have gone under, leaving hundreds of thousands without work, yet China still publishes an official unemployment rate of 4 percent.
Now, the workers are fighting back--literally. Dongguan, the city where the toy manufacturers are concentrated, has witnessed several episodes of laid-off workers' occupying and trashing the factories after they're closed. Riot police have been called in. Scenes have gotten ugly. Tensions are understandably high, as is anxiety for the future.
But since the owners of the factories often disappear into the hinterlands after closing shop, local authorities are usually powerless to collect back wages, let alone enforce severance packages. In some cases, the government--hoping to keep face--has itself coughed up the workers' earnings.
As it stands, Chinese factory workers toil up to 80 or more hours a week (when times are good) for the princely sum of 770 yuan a month, about $118. Overtime is almost never paid.
In the States, we just witnessed the employee occupation in Chicago of Republic Windows and Doors, which was abruptly shuttered after Bank of America closed its line of credit to the firm.
The laid-off workers demanded 60 days' wages and benefits under the WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Act since that law requires firms to give 60 days' advance warning of mass layouts (unless there is an unforeseen emergency, a gray area).
Just last night I heard that BofA was going to advance Republic a $1.2-million loan to remunerate the fired employees.
So, the employees won, evidently, but I have one question:
How is Republic going to repay BofA if it's no longer operating the factory?
(I just learned, but I don't know if it's accurate, that the sum is actually $1.75 million and that it will go into a fund with money from both JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America. This would seem to indicate that it's not a loan, but a publilc relations tactic to counter consumer and public ill will toward the banks.)
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