• Home
• About Us
  • Who We Are
  • Mission & Vision
  • Our Partners
  • Work For Us
• News + Events
  • What's New
  • Public Notices
  • Commercial Spots
  • Success Stories
• Resources
  • Useful Links
  • Tools
  • Publications
  • WY Communities
• Contact Us
  • Office Locations
  • Send Feedback
  • How are we doing?
• Sitemap
• Do a Search

 EMPLOYMENT SERVICES

Rapid Response Services

Rapid Response activities encompass the activities necessary to plan and deliver services to enable dislocated workers to transition to new employment as quickly as possible and to relieve the burden of the closing following either a permanent closure or mass layoff, or natural or other disaster resulting in a mass job dislocation.

There are three elements in effective assistance to Dislocated Workers:

I. Early Intervention

• The local employment center must contact the Wyoming Dislocated Worker Unitof the upcoming layoff and establish an on site contact with employer andemployee representatives within a short period of time usually 48 hours or less after becoming aware of a current or projected permanent closure or substantial layoff.
• Displaced workers are much more likely to take part in adjustment projects that begin before a plant closing or major layoff than afterward. While still employed at the site, the dislocated worker tends to have a more positive attitude towards available assistance and is more easily reached than after separation from the company.
• When workers receive early notification of a closure or layoff, studies indicate that one-third of affected workers are able to make productive decisions and take actions about their future - independently. For the other two-thirds of the workers, early assistance and participation by workers in assistance efforts prior to the dislocation have positive results in terms of the individual worker's ability to handle the adjustment.
• Early notification and intervention provides time to prepare and organize an effective program of assistance before workers become demoralized by the actual occurrence of the layoff/closure.
• Individual workers benefit from knowing in advance what will happen and their options.

II. Cooperation among and participation by companies, workers and public agencies

• Employers can provide facilities, contacts, and advertising resources to make the job search activity for displaced workers an office-based, work activity. The ability of workers to undertake job search while they are still employed and with the active support of their current employer greatly increases their prospects for employment.
• Strong and active participation by unions or other employer representatives contributes to a greater level of acceptance and trust by affected workers.

III. Good programs offering a full range of options to meet differing needs under different conditions

• The local employment center will provide information on and facilitate access to available public programs and services. These services may include, but is not limited to, information from the following entities:
  • Unemployment Insurance (when and how to apply)
  • Job Training (eligibility & training opportunities)
  • Employment Services
    • Job Search
    • Workshops (Resumes, Job Search, Interviewing)
    • Labor Market Information
  • Identifying skills (transferable)
  • Technical Training Institutions
  • Consumer Credit
  • Financial Institutions
  • Small Business Administration
  • Economic Development

Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN)

WARN offers protection to workers, their families and communities by requiring Employers to provide notice 60 days in advance of covered plant closings and covered mass layoffs. The notice must be provided to either affected workers or their representatives, the State Dislocated Worker Unit, and the appropriate unit of the Local Government.

In general, employers are covered by WARN if they have 100 or more employees, not counting employees who have worked less than 6 months in the last 12 months and not counting employees who work, an average of less than 20 hours per week. Employees entitled to a notice under WARN include, hourly and salaried workers, as well as managerial and supervisory employees. Business partners are not entitled to a notice. Regular Federal, State and Local Government entities which provide public services are not covered.

Notifications

An employer must give written notice to the chief elected officer of the exclusive representative or bargaining agent of affected employees and to unrepresented individual workers who may reasonably be expected to experience an employment loss. The employer must also provide notice to the State dislocated worker unit and to the chief elected official of local government in which the employment site is located. With three exceptions, notice must be timed to reach the required parties at least 60 days before closing or layoff.

Exceptions

An employer does not need to give notice if a plant closing is the closing of a temporary facility, or if the closing or mass layoff is a result of the completion of a particular project or undertaking. This exemption applies only if the workers were hired with the understanding that their employment was limited to the duration of the facility, project or undertaking. An employer cannot label an ongoing project temporary in order to evade its obligations under WARN.

An employer does not need to provide notice to strikers or to workers who are part of the bargaining unit which are involved in the labor negotiations that led to a lockout when the strike or lockout is equivalent to a plant closing or mass layoff. Notices will still need to be given to non-striking employees.

An employer does not need to give notice when permanently replacing a person who is an economic striker as defined under the National Labor Relations Act.

For more information, please contact David Metzger, Rapid Response coordinator at 307-777-5467.

Recommend this page to a friend.