The case: Bader v.
Northern Line Layers, Inc., U.S.C.A. 9th Cir. No. 05-36012 (2007).
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Download NowTelecommunications construction firm Northern Line Layers,
Inc. (NLL) had its central administrative office with 33 employees in Billings,
Montana, with another 162 construction employees at sites (each with one to 35
employees) in seven states. NLL eventually laid off 58 workers from the
construction sites, without providing notice under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining
Act (WARN). Generally, WARN requires advance notice of plant closings or mass
layoffs of more than 50 employees at an "employment site."
The laid-off construction workers charged that WARN notice
was required because even though they worked at remote locations, each with
just a handful of employees, the Billings office was the actual employment site
for all NLL employees. Thus, they
argued, when the number of laid-off workers from all remote sites was
aggregated, the 50-employee threshold was exceeded. NLL argued that the WARN
threshold wasn't reached because each construction site amounted to a separate
employment site.
The 9th Circuit has ruled that Billings wasn't the employment
site for the laid-off workers. In particular, Billings wasn't a home base
because the employees never physically reported there and weren't assigned work
from Billings. Also, day-to-day decisions on construction sites were overseen
by on-site supervisors and managers. Thus, the evidence here demonstrated that
50 or more people weren't laid off from a "single site of employment," and WARN
notice wasn't required.