Senators Propose Layoff Notice Rules, Aid to Jobless

Three senators proposed legislation Wednesday to authorize $980-million worth of adjustment services for dislocated workers, and to require employers to give at least 90 days’ advance notice of plant closings.

The bill’s notification provision would apply to shutdowns involving 50 or more employees. It is designed to give displaced workers time to seek re-training or placement help.

Sens. Howard M. Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Paul Simon (D-Ill.) are the sponsors of the measure. Metzenbaum said that blue-collar workers receive, on average, only seven days’ notice before a plant is closed.

“The employees are entitled to notice of what’s going to happen to them,” Metzenbaum said.

He said that since 1981, more than 5 million Americans have lost their jobs because plants were shut down or their positions were eliminated.

The legislation would require that an employer with between 50 and 100 employees give 90 days’ notice of a plant shutdown. Notice of 120 days would be required of employers of between 101 and 499 people. For companies with 500 or more employees, 180 days’ notice would be mandatory. The rules would not apply in cases where the need for layoffs cannot reasonably be foreseen.

The bill would commit $980 million to programs for dislocated workers in fiscal 1988, the budget year starting Oct. 1. It also would set up federal and state assistance in coordinating and expanding job training and re-employment aid, and would authorize three, two-year demonstration projects to help dislocated workers in selected communities.