United States HR 8148: Fair Warning Act of 2022

Bill Text

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117TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION H. R. 8148
To amend the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act to support
workers who are subject to an employment loss, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JUNE 17, 2022
Mr. RYAN (for himself and Mr. TRONE) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor
A BILL
To amend the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notifica-
tion Act to support workers who are subject to an em-
ployment loss, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fair Warning Act of 4
2022’’. 5
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS; PROVISION OF NOTICE OF SITE CLOS-6
INGS AND MASS LAYOFFS. 7
(a) WARN ACT AMENDMENTS.—Sections 2 and 3 of 8
the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act 9
(29 U.S.C. 2101; 2102) are amended to read as follows: 10
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‘‘SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS; EXCLUSIONS FROM DEFINITION OF 1
LOSS OF EMPLOYMENT. 2
‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this Act: 3
‘‘(1) AFFECTED EMPLOYEE.—The term ‘af-4
fected employee’ means a full-time or part-time em-5
ployee who may reasonably be expected to experience 6
an employment loss as a consequence of a proposed 7
site closing or mass layoff by the employee’s em-8
ployer. 9
‘‘(2) EMPLOYER.— 10
‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The term ‘employer’ 11
means any business enterprise of one or more 12
entities that— 13
‘‘(i) employs 50 or more employees, 14
including part-time employees, in the ag-15
gregate; or 16
‘‘(ii) has an annual payroll of at least 17
$2,000,000. 18
‘‘(B) MULTIPLE ENTITIES.— 19
‘‘(i) IN GENERAL.—In the case of a 20
business enterprise of more than one enti-21
ty, the entity subject to the requirements 22
under this Act as an employer of an af-23
fected employee shall be the entity that di-24
rectly employs such employee. 25
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‘‘(ii) PARENTS, AFFILIATES, AND CON-1
TRACTING COMPANIES.—A parent, affil-2
iate, or contracting company of the entity 3
described in clause (i) may also be subject 4
to the requirements under this Act as an 5
employer of the affected employee de-6
scribed in such clause based on the degree 7
of control or integration the parent, affil-8
iate, or contracting company exercises out-9
side of or at the single site of employment 10
at which the site closing or mass layoff oc-11
curred. Such control or integration shall be 12
indicated by such factors as— 13
‘‘(I) common ownership or finan-14
cial control; 15
‘‘(II) common directors or offi-16
cers; 17
‘‘(III) de facto exercise of control 18
over the circumstances relating to 19
such site closing or mass layoff; 20
‘‘(IV) unity of personnel policies 21
emanating from a common source; or 22
‘‘(V) dependency of operations. 23
‘‘(C) ADDITIONAL DEFINITIONS.—For pur-24
poses of subparagraph (B)— 25
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‘‘(i) the term ‘contracting company’ 1
means an ultimate or intermediate client of 2
an independent contractor or a provider of 3
financial services that participates directly 4
or indirectly in making decisions that af-5
fect the provision of notice required under 6
this Act; and 7
‘‘(ii) the term ‘parent’ means an ulti-8
mate owner or intermediate owner, regard-9
less of amount of ownership interest, that 10
participates directly or indirectly in making 11
decisions that affect the provision of notice 12
required under this Act. 13
‘‘(D) CONSIDERATION.—In allocating li-14
ability under this Act among multiple entities of 15
a business enterprise, substantial weight shall 16
be given to any decisionmaking responsibility an 17
entity had for the failure to provide notice to 18
affected employees as required under this Act. 19
‘‘(3) EMPLOYMENT LOSS.—Subject to sub-20
section (b), the term ‘employment loss’ means— 21
‘‘(A) an employment termination, other 22
than a discharge for cause, voluntary departure, 23
or retirement; 24
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‘‘(B) a layoff through a mass layoff or site 1
closing that is not a temporary mass layoff or 2
temporary site closing in compliance with the 3
requirements under paragraphs (2) and (3) of 4
section 3(d); or 5
‘‘(C) a reduction in hours of work of more 6
than 50 percent during each month of any 90- 7
day period that is not part of a short-time com-8
pensation program provided in the case of such 9
a temporary mass layoff or temporary site clo