Happy Monday! An estimated 55 million Americans are expected to travel for Thanksgiving this year, and they’ll likely hit the road at exactly the same time. Pack your bags and your hotspot—something tells us you’re going to be working from the car.
In today’s edition:
WARNing!
World of HR
Benefits these days
—Susanna Vogel, Kristen Parisi, Erin Grau
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Krisanapong Detraphiphat/Getty Images
Shoulder pads and oversized blazers aren’t all that’s back from the 1980s. This month, a labor law that’s been on the books since the Reagan administration has been getting fresh attention.
Twitter employees have accused their new boss, Elon Musk, of violating the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act of 1988, as well as a similar California policy, when he laid off 3,700 workers, or around 50% of the company, without notice.
With layoffs predicted to pick up steam before the holidays, we broke down what this law says, and how HR can stay compliant.
The basics. The WARN Act generally requires businesses with 100 or more full-time employees to provide 60 days’ notice before conducting a mass layoff at a single site of employment. Remote workforces aren’t out of scope: According to the Department of Labor (DOL), the site of employment for remote workers is the location “to which they are assigned as their home base, from which their work is assigned, or to which they report.”
Why haven’t I heard of this? Companies can conduct mass layoffs without notice if they provide affected workers 60 days of severance pay, or if they qualify for one of three exceptions.
The first exception, the “faltering company” standard, states that leaders don’t have to give notice if they believe, in “good faith,” that doing so would spook investors and preclude them from raising capital that could avoid cost-cutting actions “for a reasonable period.”
Employers can also argue the layoffs were triggered by an “unforeseeable business circumstance” or a natural disaster that prevented them from giving 60-day notices. While economic crises, including recessions, can qualify as unforeseeable business circumstances, according to the DOL, a company would have to “prove why it could not plan 90 days in advance.” Keep reading here.—SV
Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @SusannaVogel1 on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Susanna for her number on Signal.
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Frank Scialabba
On Mondays, we explore what’s happening abroad in the world of HR. Got global HR news? Let us know by responding to this email.
An estimated 7.6 million Ukrainians have become refugees since Russia invaded Ukraine eight months ago. In addition to looking for new homes, many are also looking for new jobs.
What in the world? Some 4.5 million Ukrainians who fled to Europe have registered for programs like the European Union’s Temporary Protection Directive, which allows them to live and work anywhere in the EU for up to three years. Despite this special status and a worker shortage across the EU, Ukranians have struggled to find work due to factors like lack of reliable childcare and language barriers, according to the Washington Post.
In response to the disconnect, the European Commission released a job-search tool in October to connect unemployed Ukrainian refugees with more than 4,000 employers, according to Reuters.
The goal is to connect refugees with good jobs, so they aren’t exploited while under duress, said Nicolas Schmit, European commissioner for jobs and social rights.
Satellite view. The situation hasn’t been as promising for the 70,000 Ukrainians who’ve fled to the US. Many still can’t legally get jobs, according to reports, as they’re stuck in a backlogged work approval process, made more complicated because they don’t have refugee status. Instead, they’re considered humanitarian parolees—they are in the country legally, but temporarily.
“I couldn’t tell you how many voice messages and emails I have from different companies who are looking forward to hir[ing] Ukrainians,” Oleg Pynda, executive director of the Ukrainian Community Center of Washington, told the Seattle Times.
But, while HR leaders in the EU can now tap a new, skilled talent pool, those in the US will likely have to wait. Keep reading here.—KP
Do you work in HR or have information about your HR department we should know? Email [email protected] or DM @Kris10Parisi on Twitter. For completely confidential conversations, ask Kristen for her number on Signal.
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Francis Scialabba
Welcome to our regular HR advice column, Ask a Resourceful Human. Here to answer all of your burning questions is Erin Grau, the co-founder and COO of Charter, a media and services company that aims to transform the workplace. Erin has over 15 years of experience at the intersection of talent and operations in global organizations and startups, including the New York Times and Away. You can sign up for the free Charter newsletter about the future of work here.
This week’s question comes from an HR Brew reader who’s wondering how best to support their employees. Got a question related to HR or work in general? Click here to let us know. Anonymity is assured.
Employee benefits—what are organizations offering these days?
There is no shortage of factors HR leaders consider when planning benefits, and for the year ahead, employee burnout, the childcare crisis, legislation pertaining to abortion access, and economic uncertainty will be just a few.
Whether or not you’re among the 61% of US employers that survey their employees about their benefits needs, here are a few worth considering:
Mental health and well-being. VC firm Kleiner Perkins’s 2022 People Report found that employers have increased their investment in employee mental health and well-being since the start of the pandemic. From company-wide mental health days (or weeks) to tools and resources beyond the employee assistance program (like BetterHelp or Headspace memberships), companies are supporting the overall health and well-being of their employees.
Caregiver support. Some companies are trying to help caregivers by offering flexible work arrangements (including parental leave), support for those caring for aging parents, and access to affordable, reliable childcare.
When it comes to childcare, benefits often focus on subsidies and backup care, but with 100,000 fewer childcare workers than before the pandemic, companies have been searching for more creative, equitable solutions. Keep reading here.—EG
Got a burning HR question? Click here to let us know. Anonymity is assured.
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Today’s top HR reads.
Stat: Amazon claims that ramping up its use of robots to perform tasks such as product quality assurance has resulted in the creation of 1 million new jobs. (Axios)
Quote: “US immigration policy has amplified the uncertainty for immigrant workers in times like this. A lot of tech workers will have to pack up their lives and leave.”—Guarav Khanna, assistant professor of economics at the University of California San Diego, on how layoffs disproportionately impact those on work visas (NBC News)
Read: Redditors are sharing signs of toxic workplaces. (BuzzFeed)
Subscribe: Join over 4 million people who read Morning Brew—the daily email covering the latest news across business, finance, & tech. It’s free and takes 5 minutes to read so there’s no reason not to check it out.
(Fun)damental HR: Alex Lieberman, Morning Brew co-founder and executive chairman, sat down with HR pros from Change.org and DockATot to discuss the secret sauce to scaling, retention, and remote work from an HR perspective. Watch here.*
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Krispy Kreme has agreed to pay $1.2 million in unpaid wages and damages to 516 workers to settle claims of overtime pay violations.
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Asana, a work management software company, announced it’s laying off 9% of its employees.
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Twitter is being sued by a former employee who alleges the company violated the Americans with Disabilities Act when it fired him for refusing to return to the office.
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Workplace injuries and illnesses declined 1.8% from 2020 to 2021 due, in part, to a drop in respiratory illnesses.
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Catch up on the top HR Brew stories from the recent past:
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