Morton v. Vanderbilt Univ., No. 15-5417 (6th Cir. 2016)
Annotate this CasePlaintiffs, 194 employees who were terminated by Vanderbilt University on July 1, 2013, sued, claiming violation of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN), 29 U.S.C. 2101, which requires certain employers to provide at least 60 days’ written notice to affected employees before a mass layoff. The plaintiffs’ class is insufficient to constitute a “mass layoff” (of 500 workers during a 30-day period) as defined by WARN; they cited the Act’s aggregation provision, which allows for separate layoffs within a 90-day period to be counted togetherf. They alleged that a second group of Vanderbilt employees was notified on September 17, 2013, that their jobs would be eliminated 60 days later, on November 16. Although they were no longer permitted to report for work, they continued to receive wages and accrue benefits after the notice was given. They were not eligible for state unemployment benefits until November 16, when they no longer received wages and accrued benefits. The Sixth Circuit ruled in favor of Vanderbilt. The employment relationship between Vanderbilt and the September employees did not end until November 16; they suffered an employment loss more than 90 days after the plaintiffs were terminated and thus cannot be counted under the aggregation provision.
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