On February 2, 2010, Ohio Representative Kenny Yuko introduced a well-crafted bill (H.B. 434) that would require employers to provide their employees with advance notice of mass layoffs, worksite closings, and transfers of operation. The legislation is co-sponsored by Representatives Robert Hagan, Mike Foley, Tom Letson, Clayton Luckie, Debbie Phillips, Marian Harris and John Domenick. The bill imposes few, if any, expenses and no new taxes on Ohio businesses, while providing meaningful accountability for companies that violate the notification rights of workers and local communities who suffer the direct impact of sudden job loss.
Ohio's bill would apply to employers of fifty or more workers and require ninety days advance notice of worksite closings, mass layoffs (including layoffs lasting longer than four months) and transfers of operations that affect twenty-five or more workers at a single site. For closings, layoffs, and transfers that affect two hundred and fifty or more workers, advance notice must be given one hundred and twenty days before the job action. The bill further provides that notice should be given to the affected employees, their representatives, the department of job and family services, local workforce policy boards and local elected officials and also allows rapid response team members on-site access to provide critical information to displaced workers. The law would permit state officials to bring enforcement actions against violating companies and also allow enforcement by affected employees through a complaint procedure with the state's department of job and family services and/or a civil action.
The bill has been assigned for review by the House Commerce & Labor Committee.
All you Buckeyes out there are encouraged to contact Rep. Yuko and the bill's co-sponsors to thank them for their leadership on this issue and to contact your state representatives and House Commerce & Labor Committee members to have your voice heard in support of this legislation.
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