Sixty days. That’s how much written notice the California WARN Act requires before a mass layoff, relocation, or termination at a covered establishment, and the state law reaches situations the federal WARN Act doesn’t, including some temporary furloughs. Since January 1, 2026, the notice also has to contain more. An employer that skips it can owe each affected employee up to 60 days of back pay and benefits, and plaintiffs can bring those claims as a class with attorney’s fees.
Which employers and layoffs does Cal-WARN cover?
Employers with a “covered establishment,” and that threshold is lower than the federal one. Labor Code section 1400.5(a) defines a covered establishment as “any industrial or commercial facility or part thereof that employs, or has employed within the preceding 12 months, 75 or more persons.” Under subdivision (b), a parent corporation counts as the employer for a covered establishment its subsidiary owns and operates.
Three events trigger notice:
A “mass layoff,” defined as “a layoff during any 30-day period of 50 or more employees at a covered establishment.” Unlike federal law, there’s no requirement that the 50 make up any percentage of the workforce.
A “termination,” which section 1400.5(f) defines as “the cessation or substantial cessation of industrial or commercial operations in a covered establishment.”
A “relocation,” meaning the removal of all or nearly all operations “to a different location 100 miles or more away.”
Only certain workers count. An “employee” for Cal-WARN purposes is “a person employed by an employer for at least 6 months of the 12 months preceding the date on which notice is required,” according to section 1400.5(h). That rule often decides whether a layoff crosses 50, so the headcount should be run on that definition before the decision is announced, not after.
Does a temporary furlough require Cal-WARN notice?
It can. The statute defines a layoff as “a separation from a position for lack of funds or lack of work,” and a published decision held that a four-to-five-week unpaid layoff of about 90 workers required notice, even though it was temporary. In International Brotherhood of Boilermakers v. NASSCO Holdings Inc. (2017) 17 Cal.App.5th 1105, a shipbuilder told about 90 employees not to return for several weeks during a production lull, without advance notice. The employer argued the statute didn’t apply to a temporary furlough.
The Fourth District disagreed. It reasoned that under “a commonsense understanding, a separation can be permanent or it can be temporary,” and that “the fact that the work stoppage was temporary does not logically take the action outside the scope of the statutory duty.” The court affirmed a judgment for back pay and lost pension benefits. The opinion cited the definition when it was numbered section 1400(c). The same language now sits in section 1400.5(c).
The federal comparison makes the risk concrete. The court noted that the federal WARN Act reaches a temporary layoff only if it “exceed[s] 6 months.” A California employer planning a multi-week unpaid shutdown can comply with federal law and still owe Cal-WARN notice. The court held only that notice was due “under the particular circumstances of this case,” and it left open how the law applies to very brief stoppages.
What has to be in a Cal-WARN notice in 2026?
More than before. The 60-day rule is in Labor Code section 1401(a): an employer “may not order a mass layoff, relocation, or termination at a covered establishment unless, 60 days before the order takes effect, the employer gives written notice.” Notice must reach the affected employees and to “The Employment Development Department, the local workforce development board, and the chief elected official of each city and county government within which the termination, relocation, or mass layoff occurs.”
The notice must include the elements required by the federal WARN Act. SB 617, effective January 1, 2026, added state-specific content to section 1401:
Whether the employer plans to coordinate services, “such as a rapid response orientation,” through the local workforce development board, through another entity, or not at all, plus the board’s email and phone number and a statutory description of its services. If the employer chooses to coordinate, section 1401(c)(2) says it “shall arrange services within 30 days from the date of the notice.”
“A description of the statewide food assistance program known as CalFresh,” the CalFresh benefits helpline, and a link to the CalFresh website.
“A functioning email and telephone number of the employer for contact.”
Older templates won’t have these items. A notice that goes out on time but leaves out the new content invites an argument that notice wasn’t given “as required” by the statute.
What does a Cal-WARN violation cost?
Up to 60 days of pay and benefits per affected employee, a civil penalty for missed agency notices, and attorney’s fees. Under section 1402(a), an employer that fails to give employee notice is liable to each employee entitled to notice who lost employment for back pay at “the average regular rate of compensation received by the employee during the last three years of his or her employment, or the employee’s final rate of compensation, whichever is higher,” plus the value of lost benefits.
The period is capped. Section 1402(b) limits liability to “the period of the employer’s violation, up to a maximum of 60 days, or one-half the number of days that the employee was employed by the employer, whichever period is smaller.” And subdivision (c) reduces it by wages paid during the violation period and by “Any voluntary and unconditional payments made by the employer to the employee that were not required to satisfy any legal obligation.”
Missing the agency notices adds a separate exposure. Section 1403 sets “a civil penalty of not more than five hundred dollars ($500) for each day of the employer’s violation,” but the employer avoids it if it pays affected employees what’s owed under section 1402 “within three weeks from the date the employer orders the mass layoff, relocation, or termination.” Under section 1404, employees, a union, or a local government can sue on behalf of “other persons similarly situated,” and the court “may award reasonable attorney’s fees as part of costs to any plaintiff who prevails.”
| Issue | Statute | Exposure and its conditions | What reduces or answers it |
|---|---|---|---|
| No employee notice | § 1401(a)(1), § 1402 | Back pay and benefits for the violation period, up to 60 days or half the employee’s tenure, whichever is smaller | Wages paid in lieu of notice and voluntary, unconditional payments |
| No agency notice | § 1401(a)(2), § 1403 | Civil penalty of up to $500 per day | Paying the § 1402 amounts within three weeks of the order |
| Notice missing 2026 content | § 1401(b) to (e) | Argument that notice wasn’t given as required | An updated template reviewed before it’s sent |
| Class or union lawsuit | § 1404 | Attorney’s fees to a prevailing plaintiff | Accurate headcount under the 6-of-12-months employee definition |
Are there exceptions to the 60-day notice?
A few, and they’re narrow. Section 1401(f) excuses notice when the layoff, relocation, or termination “is necessitated by a physical calamity or act of war.” Project-based workers covered by Wage Orders 11, 12, and 16 are excluded when they were hired with the understanding their work would end with the project, and so are seasonal employees hired with the understanding that the work was “seasonal and temporary,” under section 1400.5(g).
The faltering company exception in section 1402.5 applies only to relocations and terminations, not mass layoffs, and only if the Employment Development Department determines that the employer was “actively seeking capital or business” that would have avoided or postponed the closure, and reasonably believed notice “would have precluded the employer from obtaining the needed capital or business.” It requires a documented record and a sworn affidavit. California’s statute has no general unforeseeable-business-circumstances exception like the federal one, which surprises employers that know only the federal rules.
When a Cal-WARN claim or demand arrives
- Preserve the layoff file: the decision memos, headcount and selection spreadsheets, the notices sent and proof of delivery to employees and agencies, payroll for the affected group, and emails about timing.
- Calendar the response deadline on the demand or complaint, and check for arbitration agreements, any collective bargaining agreement, and an employment practices liability (EPLI) policy with notice conditions.
- Identify the people who decided the timing and scope of the layoff, and hold off on further reductions at the same site until the headcount is re-run.
- Rebuild the count: which employees met the 6-of-12-months definition, which separations fall in each 30-day window, and which establishment each worker belonged to.
- Talk to counsel before making payments to affected workers, since a payment that’s voluntary and unconditional can reduce liability, and one structured as a release may be treated differently.
Notice cases are usually won or lost on the count and the calendar. The firm’s page on California employment defense describes how layoff-related claims are defended. Severance terms for the same layoff are covered in the severance agreement post.
Cal-WARN questions employers ask
Do remote employees count toward the 50?
That depends on whether they’re tied to the covered establishment, and the statute doesn’t answer it directly. Cal-WARN counts employees “at a covered establishment,” and remote workers who report to or are managed from a California site may be treated as part of it. Employers with distributed teams should resolve the assignment before running the count, because a close call usually becomes a fact question in litigation.
Can we pay 60 days’ wages instead of giving notice?
Paying wages for the notice period can reduce or eliminate back pay liability, because section 1402(c) credits wages paid during the violation period and voluntary, unconditional payments. It doesn’t satisfy the agency notice requirement. The section 1403 penalty is avoided only if the payments are made within three weeks of the order.
Does Cal-WARN apply if we sell the business?
A sale where employees keep working for the buyer doesn’t usually cause a layoff of those employees, since they aren’t separated from their positions. Employees the buyer doesn’t hire can be another matter, and the seller and buyer should decide in the purchase agreement who sends any required notice.
Is a reduction in hours a layoff under Cal-WARN?
Section 1400.5(c) defines a layoff as “a separation from a position for lack of funds or lack of work,” so a cut in hours with no separation reads as a different event under the statute’s text, though no published California decision has resolved that question. A furlough where employees are told not to report at all is different, as NASSCO shows.
If your company is facing a Cal-WARN claim
If your company has received a demand or lawsuit over layoff notice, the headcount and the notice timeline usually decide how much of it is real. Rosenberger + Kawabata represents employers defending employment lawsuits and claims through its business litigation practice, including claims involving mass layoffs and plant closures. Contact Rosenberger + Kawabata online for a confidential consultation, or call (310) 894-6921.
Sources
The statutes are Labor Code section 1400.5, section 1401, section 1402, section 1402.5, section 1403, and section 1404. The case is International Brotherhood of Boilermakers v. NASSCO Holdings Inc. (2017) 17 Cal.App.5th 1105.
This post is general information about California and federal employment law as of November 7, 2026. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Employment statutes, regulations, and court decisions change often, and the outcome of any claim depends on its facts. Past results do not guarantee future outcomes.