Case: Individual Employment Rights/WARN Act (D. Guam)

Guam Shipyard can’t invoke affirmative defenses found in the Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification Act to reduce or eliminate the amount of damages it owes to employees who it terminated in a mass layoff by a written letter that fired them, effective immediately. The letter didn’t constitute notice under the WARN Act because it lacked the required information, and the shipyard admitted no written notice had been provided to the employees. The employees argued that when WARN Act notice is required but not given, a company can’t rely on the act’s affirmative defenses to reduce damages. The “faltering company” and ...