Covid as Natural Disaster? Courts to Decide WARN Act Defense

Two federal circuit courts will consider an employer defense that’s contributed to the relative scarcity of lawsuits filed by workers who say they didn’t get early notice before they were laid off during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit announced earlier this month that it will weigh whether the pandemic qualifies as the type of natural disaster that exempts Enterprise Holdings Inc. from the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act’s requirements. The Fifth Circuit has similarly agreed to take up that issue on an emergency appeal in a case involving a hydraulic fracturing company ...