What are my rights if my employer decided to close the e-commerce division without notice?
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What are my rights if my employer decided to close the e-commerce division without notice?
A week before we were told that they have big plans for us (6 of us). However, last week they told us that the division is closing and that we have 30 minutes to leave the building. According to the company’s rules, they were supposed to offer us a possibility to work with different departments, especially that most of us come to this new division from other departments. At the time when they told us about closing the division, the company was hiring, but we were never offered the possibility to chose.They said that they don’t want anything e-commerce related anymore. Was this legal?
Asked on November 11, 2015 under Employment Labor Law, Florida
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 9 years ago | Contributor
Yes, unfortunately, it is legal. A company may close a division/department and lay off or terminate all employees without any notice unless the WARN Act applies, but 6 employees is far too small a number to trigger the provisions of the WARN Act. Unless you had a written contract limiting the reasons you could be terminated or otherwise guarantying your employment, you could be terminated at any time, for any reason (e.g. you were an "employee at will"). The law does not enforce internal policies or rules, so even if the company had a policy that employees whose employment was being terminated would typically have the chance to work with a different department, that is not enforceable.
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