The federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requires employers in the United States with 100 or more full time employees to provide 60-day notice in advance of mass layoffs or plant closings.  The WARN Act applies to full time workers and provides workers with time to prepare for the transition between the jobs they currently hold and new jobs. States such as California, New York and others maintain their own state level WARN Acts, requiring additional employer obligations.

We have reviewed the WARN notices available for the first quarter of 2023.

The California Department of Industrial Relations maintains a database of wage theft claims presented to the office by employees, and Wage Claim Judgments against individuals and corporations. We have reviewed this database for judgments from January 1st to March 31st, the first quarter of 2023.

On April 28th, 2023, Schneider Wallace Cottrell Konecky LLP filed lawsuits in the Northern District of California against Energizer Holdings Inc. and Wal-Mart Inc. The complaints alleges that Walmart and Energizer violated federal and California antirust and consumer protection laws by entering into anticompetitive agreements to inflate wholesale and retail prices for disposable batteries.