March 23, 2005, Introduced by Reps. Lemmons, Jr., Lemmons, III, Cushingberry and Cheeks and referred to the Committee on Employment Relations, Training, and Safety.
A bill to require employers to give notice to certain persons
of actions affecting employees; to create certain rights and
responsibilities for employers and laid-off employees; to provide
certain powers and duties to certain state agencies and officials;
and to provide for remedies.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF MICHIGAN ENACT:
Sec. 1. This act shall be known and may be cited as the
"workforce adjustment notice act".
Sec. 3. As used in this act:
(a) "Covered establishment" means an industrial or commercial
facility or part of an industrial or commercial facility that
employs, or has employed within the preceding 12 months, 75 or more
individuals.
(b) "Department" means the department of labor and economic
growth.
(c) "Employee" means an individual employed by an employer for
at least 6 months of the 12 months immediately preceding the date
on which notice under this act is required.
(d) "Employer" means a person that owns and operates, either
directly or indirectly, a covered establishment. A parent
corporation is an employer as to any covered establishment directly
owned and operated by its corporate subsidiary.
(e) "Layoff" means a separation from a position for lack of
funds or lack of work.
(f) "Mass layoff" means a layoff during any 30-day period of
50 or more employees at a covered establishment.
(g) "Person" means an individual, firm, partnership,
association, corporation, or any other business entity.
(h) "Relocation" means the removal of all or substantially all
of the industrial or commercial operations in a covered
establishment to a location that is 100 miles or more away.
(i) "Termination" means ceasing or substantially ceasing the
industrial or commercial operations of a covered establishment.
Sec. 5. Except as provided in section 11, an employer shall
not order a mass layoff, relocation, or termination at a covered
establishment unless, at least 60 days before the order takes
effect, the employer gives written notice that includes all of the
elements required by the federal worker adjustment and retraining
notification act, 29 USC 2101 to 2109, to all of the following:
(a) The employees of the covered establishment who are
affected by the order.
(b) The chief elected official of each unit of local
government in which the termination, relocation, or mass layoff
will occur.
Sec. 7. (1) Except as provided in sections 9 and 11, an
employer who fails to give notice as required by this act is
responsible to each affected employee for all of the following:
(a) Back pay for 60 days at the higher of the employee's
average regular rate of compensation for the past 3 years or the
employee's compensation rate on the last day of employment before
the mass layoff, relocation, or termination.
(b) The monetary value of 60 days of benefits, including
medical benefits, which the employee would have received from the
employer as part of an employment benefit plan.
(2) An employer who fails to pay the amounts due under
subsection (1), in full, within 3 weeks after the employer orders
the mass layoff, relocation, or termination is responsible for a
civil fine of $500.00 for each day of the violation, up to a
maximum of 60 days.
Sec. 9. An employer's responsibility under section 7(1) is
reduced by all of the following:
(a) Wages, excluding accrued vacation pay, that the employer
pays to the affected employee during the period after the earlier
of the date that the mass layoff, relocation, or termination begins
or the date that the employer provides notice in the form required
under section 5.
(b) Voluntary and unconditional payments that the employer
makes to the employee, which payments are not made to satisfy any
other legal obligation.
(c) Payments that the employer makes to a third party or
trustee on behalf of the employee, such as premiums for health
benefits or payments to a defined contribution pension plan, for
the period after the date that the mass layoff, relocation, or
termination begins.
Sec. 11. This act does not apply to the following:
(a) Employees who are employed in seasonal employment or for a
project of definite duration, if the employees were hired with the
understanding that their employment was seasonal or temporary.
(b) A mass layoff, relocation, or termination that results
from a natural or man-made disaster or act of war.
(c) An employer who was actively seeking capital or business
that, if obtained, would have enabled the employer to avoid or
postpone the relocation or termination, if the employer had a
reasonable, good faith belief that giving the notice required under
section 5 would have prevented the employer from obtaining the
necessary capital or business. The exception under this subdivision
does not apply to a mass layoff.
Sec. 13. An employer claiming exemption under section 11(c)
shall provide the department with the following documents:
(a) A record of all the documents relevant to the employer's
efforts to obtain capital or business.
(b) An affidavit attesting to the truth and accuracy of the
documents provided and that is signed under penalty of perjury.
Sec. 15. The department may conduct an investigation or
proceeding to enforce this act. The department may request a
subpoena to examine books and records of an employer if necessary
to perform its duties under this act.
Sec. 17. (1) A person may bring a civil action in a court of
competent jurisdiction to enforce this act on the person's own
behalf or on behalf of another similarly situated person.
(2) In addition to the remedies provided in this act, the
court may award a prevailing plaintiff reasonable attorney fees and
costs.
(3) The court may reduce the amount of any fine imposed
against the employer under this act if the court determines that an
employer conducted a reasonable investigation in good faith and had
reasonable grounds to believe that its conduct was not in violation
of this act.