Behold!
If the Obama administration does not think that employees should have notice of these potential dangers, then it should say so forthrightly, and try to get this very bad law repealed. On the other hand, if it thinks that maybe it’s a good thing for employees to have advanced notice that they might soon not have a paycheck, then it seems odd to first, pressure contractors not to send those notices, and second, offer to help the contractors avoid paying any legal damages that their failure might have incurred.
Got that? The WARN Act notification requirement is being triggered for defense industries by defense cuts looming from sequestration.
But the Obama administration doesn't want layoff notices this month. Bad optics, that.
So the administration is pressuring the companies not to issue the notices on the theory that even though the statutes require the notices, at the last minute we will spend the money and so the layoffs won't be required.
That may be a good bet given our spending class--but it is not rule of law.
So the president doesn't want the little guys to get warning of layoffs that, as conditions currently exist, are certainly coming.
But wait, it gets more funny. The WARN act has fines levied on companies for failing to provide those notices. Rule of law, and all that. So even though the administration says the layoffs won't happen because the spending will continue--so we can ignore the law--the law requires fines to be levied on the companies.
Those fines will be levied. So to help these one percenters, the Obama administration will make sure the companies won't have to pay the cost of the fines levied. Taxes paid by the laid off 99%-workers while they worked for the companies will essentially go to the 1% owners to insulate the companies from failing to warn their employees of their pending layoffs.
No wonder Hugo Chavez said he'd vote for President Obama if he could.
