Section 279.04. When employer notice must be given.

 

(1)  An employer who has decided upon a business closing or mass layoff in this state shall provide written notice of such action no later than 60 calendar days prior to the date that the closing or layoff occurs. The department shall, upon complaint, determine whether notice is required or should have been provided.

(2)  

(a) An employer is not required to provide notice as required in this section unless affected employees lose employment in sufficient number on a particular date to meet the definition of business closing or mass layoff. However, subject to par. (c) , 2 or more groups of employees who are affected during a 90-day period may be considered in the aggregate in order to determine whether the business closing or mass layoff thresholds have been met, unless the loss of employment in different groups are the result of separate and distinct actions and causes. In order to be considered in the aggregate, each group of employees affected by a reduction in the workforce on different dates must, by itself, be insufficient to trigger notice obligations.

(b) For the purpose of this subsection successive layoffs or terminations that result from different events are separate and distinct actions and causes. Successive layoffs or reductions in the workforce caused by ongoing unfavorable business conditions are separate and distinct if the employer had a reasonable basis for believing that the subsequent reduction would not necessarily follow from the earlier reduction or reductions.

(c) The department shall consider, subject to par. (a) , a series of layoffs that are related and conducted by the employer with the intent to evade the notice requirements of s. 109.07 , Stats. as failure to give timely notice.

(d) The department shall consider permanent or routine notice given by an employer with the intent to evade the requirements of s. 109.07 , Stats., as failure to give timely notice.

(3)  For the purposes of this section, an affected employee's date of layoff or termination is the date active employment is first denied because of a business closing or mass layoff. The date of an employees' reduction in hours of work of 50% or more in a given month is the first business day in the month in which the employee experiences that reduction. Notice is required when it becomes evident that the reduction will extend beyond 6 months.

(4)  

(a) An employer may use any reasonable method of delivery designed to result in receipt of written notice at least 60 days before the business closing or mass layoff occurs. Employers must exercise reasonable diligence in issuing notices but do not have to take extraordinary or unreasonable measures to ensure notices are actually received by all parties.

(b) A reasonable method of delivery includes but is not limited to, first class mail, personal delivery with optional signed receipt or in the case of notification directly to affected employees, insertion of notice into pay envelopes. A ticketed notice, in other words, a preprinted notice regularly included in each employee's pay check or pay envelope, does not meet the requirements of this section.

(5)  To determine whether a business enterprise is an employer subject to s. 109.07 , Stats., or to determine the number of employees in an employers workforce or at an employment site against which the 25% threshold for a mass layoff is to be calculated, the point in time at which that number is to be measured is the date the first notice is required to be given. If this"snapshot" of the amount of employees on the date is not representative of the employers ordinary or average employment levels over the previous 90 days then the department shall use a more representative number.

History: Cr. Register, March, 1991, No. 423 , eff. 4-1-91.