Employment: Cal/WARN Act: plant closings and mass layoffs.

Existing law, the California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Act (Cal/WARN Act) , prohibits a call center employer from ordering a relocation of its call center, or one or more of its facilities or operating units within a call center, unless notice of the relocation is provided, as described. This bill would additionally prohibit, under the Cal/WARN Act, an employer, as defined, from ordering a plant closing or mass layoff, as defined, until the end of a 60-day period after the employer serves written notice of such an order to specified persons, including affected employees, as described and except as provided. The bill would require a noncompliant employer to provide each aggrieved employee, as described, specified backpay for each day of the violation and benefits under an employee benefit plan, including medical expense costs, as described. The bill also impose, if an employer fails to provide notice to a unit of local government, as defined, a civil penalty of not more than $500 each day, except as provided. The would provide methods for reducing a noncompliant employer's liability and for enforcing the employer's liability in court. This bill would require the department, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to adopt rules and regulations necessary to implement the bill's provisions, as described, and to submit to the labor committees of the Assembly and Senate a report containing a detailed and objective analysis of the effect of this article on employers, the economy, and employees, as described. The bill would encourage employers that are not required to comply to provide notice pursuant to the bill's provisions. The bill would make related technical changes.