First ruling from a federal appellate court examining COVID-19–related layoffs and the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification WARN Act, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held in Easom v. US Well Services, Inc., mass layoff resulting in part from the economic impact of COVID-19.
Fifth Circuit held that COVID-19 pandemic is not a natural disaster and does not excuse employer from providing notice before implementing mass layoff or a plant closing, and held that the proximate cause standard applied.It falls on employer to meet exception requirements
COVID forced employers to furlough, layoff employees. Some operations were closed, others furloughed employees for various periods of time, often longer than planned. Some cases triggered WARN Act, requiring employer to give employees suffering job loss 60 days notice.