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On July 30th, 2012 Jane Oates, assistant secretary for employment and training at the U.S. Department of Labor, issued a "guidance letter" advising government contractors to essentially ignore the WARN ACT, a federal law, which would normally require warning letters to certain employees by November 1st, 2012 that they may be laid-off or terminated January 1st, 2013.
The issue arises because of fears that the U.S. Congress will fail to avert the "fiscal cliff": that is, the tax increases and widespread federal government spending cuts which are currently mandated by law to occur on January 1st, 2013, thus affecting government contractors.
The WARN ACT, or the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, is design to "protect workers, their families, and communities by requiring most employers with 100 or more employees to provide notification 60 calendar days in advance of plant closings and mass layoffs." The WARN ACT is administered by Jane Oates' Employment and Training Administration (ETA) of the Department of Labor at the federal level, and by some individual states who have their own plant closure laws.
The 12 states and localities that have passed state or local WARN acts are: California, City of Philadelphia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota (voluntary compliance), New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Wisconsin.
[workplacechoice.org/2012/08/09/the-warn-act-dilemma; www.dol.gov/compliance/laws/comp-warn.htm; www.doleta.gov/layoff/warn.cfm; "The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act: Revising the Act and Educational Materials Could Clarify Employer Responsibilities and Employee Rights: Report to Congressional Requesters," U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), GAO-03-1003, Washington, D.C. (2003)]
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