California Expands State WARN Act Obligations

California has enacted legislation that significantly expands the information that employers must include in their WARN notices and actions they must take under the California Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (“CalWARN”). Starting January 1, 2026, employers can no longer simply include the federal WARN Act notice content in their CalWARN notices.

CalWARN’s Notice Obligations

CalWARN applies to all employers in California that operate a California “covered establishment,” which is defined as “any industrial or commercial facility or part thereof that employs, or has employed within the preceding 12 months, 75 or more persons.”¹ 

The CalWARN 60-day notice obligations are triggered if an employer suffers a “mass layoff,”² a “termination,”³ or a “relocation”⁴ at a covered establishment. Currently, if one of these events is going to occur, the employer must provide at least 60 days’ notice before the effective date to the affected employees, the California Employment Development Department, the local workforce investment board, the chief elected county official and the chief elected city official for the worksite where the mass layoff, termination or relocation is scheduled to occur.⁵ CalWARN prior to amendment adopted federal WARN Act elements for the content of the CalWARN notice.⁶

Expansion of CalWARN’s Notice Obligations 

On October 1, 2025, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 617 into law, amending California Labor Code section 1401. While events that trigger the notice requirement, the parties to receive the CalWARN notice, and the federal WARN Act elements that must be included in the CalWARN notice remain the same, SB 617 adds the following required language to the CalWARN notices:

• “whether the employer plans to coordinate services, such as a rapid response orientation, through the local workforce development board, the employer plans to coordinate services through a different entity, or the employer does not plan to coordinate services with any entity.”⁷
• “a functioning email and telephone number of the [local workforce development] board and the following description of the rapid response activities offered by the local workforce development board . . .: ‘Local Workforce Development Boards and their partners help laid off workers find new jobs. Visit an America’s Job Center of California location near you. You can get help with your resume, practice interviewing, search for jobs, and more. You can also learn about training programs to help start a new career.’”⁸
• “a description of the statewide food assistance program known as CalFresh . . ., the CalFresh benefits helpline, and a link to the CalFresh internet website.”⁹
• “a functioning email and telephone number of the employer for contact.”¹⁰

In addition, if the employer decides that it is going to coordinate services with the local workforce development board or other entity, SB 617 requires the employer to arrange these services within 30 days from the date of the issuance of the CalWARN notice.¹¹ 

The new CalWARN notice requirements will apply to all CalWARN notices issued by employers on and after January 1, 2026.

Recommendations

Significantly, SB 617 does not specify if every notice required to be provided under CalWARN must include this new language. Some of the new notice requirements only make sense to be included in the employee WARN notices as the governmental entities would have no need to be informed of the contact information of the local workforce development board and the services it provides and of the contact information for the CalFresh food assistance services. Until SB 617 is clarified, however, the new content should be included in all CalWARN notices regardless of who must receive the CalWARN notice.

In addition to the normal planning required to determine if CalWARN (and the federal WARN Act) will apply to a planned employment action, if an employer is interested in coordinating services with the local workforce development board or other entity, SB 617 will impose the extra planning step of establishing if the local workforce development board or other entity provides services to the affected employees, what those services are and if it will coordinate with the employer to provide those services. While many local workforce development boards have rapid response teams that will coordinate with employers to aid laid-off employees in filing unemployment claims and seeking new employment, the availability and scope of the services may vary between local workforce development boards. 

Also, this determination of potential coordinated services may result in the employer having to provide notice of its planned employment action before it is willing to do so. For employers that do not want to potentially inform the local workforce development board of its planned employment action before the issuance of the CalWARN notices, they may simply decide to specify in the CalWARN notices that they are not currently planning to coordinate services with the local workforce development board and wait to work with the local workforce development board until after the CalWARN notices are issued like under the current CalWARN notice requirements.