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Class Action – WARN Act Violation

By: Derek Hawkins//October 21, 2019//

Class Action – WARN Act Violation

By: Derek Hawkins//October 21, 2019//

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7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Carl Leeper v. Hamilton County Coal, LLC, et al.

Case No.: 19-1109

Officials: RIPPLE, MANION, and SYKES, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Class Action – WARN Act Violation

A group of workers at an Illinois coal mine received some unwelcome news on February 5, 2016. Their employer, Hamilton County Coal, LLC, announced a “temporary layoff” with an expected end date of August 1, 2016. Carl Leeper, a full-time maintenance worker at the mine, responded with this class action under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (the “WARN Act” or “the Act”), which requires employers to give affected employees 60 days’ notice before imposing a “mass layoff.” 29 U.S.C. § 2102(a)(1). The Act defines a mass layoff as an event in which at least 33% of a site’s full-time workforce suffers an “employment loss.” Id. § 2101(a)(3)(B). The district court entered summary judgment for Hamilton because the work site did not experience a “mass layoff” as defined in the Act.

We affirm. The record contains no evidence of a mass layoff. The term “employment loss” is defined as a permanent termination, a layoff exceeding six months, or an extended reduction of work hours. None of those events occurred here. Instead, Hamilton initiated a temporary layoff of under six months.

Affirmed

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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.

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