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    Airport Security Employees Not Entitled to 60-Days Notice Of Government Layoff

    Sept. 20, 2006
    Employees sued Globe Aviation for violation of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act because Globe Aviation did not give the employees a 60-day warning as to the layoff.
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    The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court's decision that an airport security company was not required to give its employees 60 days advanced notice of a mass lay-off because the federal government took over operations at the airport.

    Globe Aviation Security Services employed airport security screeners at the San Jose International Airport. Pursuant to the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (ATSA), the federal government took over security operations at all airports. Thus, Globe Aviation laid-off its employees via a memorandum that informed the employees how to apply for a position with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

    Virgil Deveraturda was a full-time employee of Globe Aviation. In a proposed class action, Deveraturda and other employees sued Globe Aviation for violation of the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) because Globe Aviation did not give the employees a 60-day warning as to the layoff pursuant to WARN.

    WARN inapplicable to government orders.

    The section of WARN requiring employers to give employees 60-days notice prior to mass layoffs states in part "an employer shall not order a plant closing or mass layoff until the end of a 60-day period after the employer serves written notice of such an order ." The Ninth Circuit found that the plain language of the statute did not apply to government-ordered layoffs.

    The Ninth Circuit ruled that, because the Global Aviation layoffs were ordered by the federal government and not the private employer, WARN was inapplicable. Thus, the court affirmed the dismissal of the claim against Global Aviation.

    Judge : Pamela Ann Rymer

    Counsel for Deveraturda : G. Scott Emblidge, Moscone Emblidge & Quadra L.L.P., San Francisco.

    Counsel for Globe Aviation : Samuel T. McAdam, Seyfarth Shaw L.L.P., Sacramento, Cal.

    Source: Class Action Law Monitor, 09/15/2006

    Copyright © 2006 by Strafford Publications, Inc.

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