Plant Closing

hrqueen

We have been notified our facility will be closed by year-end. Apparently, the closing will be a process, in other words, termination of employees will occur over a period of time rather than everyone leaving at the same time. We are a union facility.

Currently, we have two employees on leave, i.e. one on medical leave and one on workers comp leave. The plant manager sent here to oversee this process has mentioned to me that he would like to send notification to these two employees first. My question is, would this action violate any federal or state (Illinois) laws? I understand that as union members, there is the whole seniority issue, but I'm concerned about ADA regulations, etc. I'm not aware of.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Sunny

I would be very careful with this. You can certainly lay off your people on FMLA as their turn comes up, but you need to be able to show that they would have been laid off even if they were at work. I wouldn't try to take them out of turn as that may bring both the union and a lawsuit down on your head.
As with any large layoff or plant closing it would probably be wise to consult with a labor attorney. Good luck - this kind of thing is never fun.

HS

You might want to consider putting in a clause for "volunteers" for each round of layoffs. Offer this to most senior union employees first, you'd be surprised how many who are either on leave or working would rather volunteer so they can find a new job quickly or recover from whatever has them out on leave. Just a thought.