New York employers subject to New York’s State Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification law (“NY WARN”) may have to disclose whether artificial intelligence (AI) automation played a role in reaching a business decision that led to mass layoffs or plant closings. New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced on January 14, 2025 she is directing the New York Department of Labor to impose this requirement. Specific details about the scope and effective date are not yet available.
NY WARN gives employees time to prepare for layoffs and increases the chances that they will find a new job. The law also gives more advance notice to local governments who may offer aid affected employees.
Per the NY WARN fact sheet, the State has stricter laws than the Federal WARN (1989):
- The Federal law requires employers with 100 or more employees to provide 60 days’ notice to employees when employees will be terminated or laid off for more than 6 months or who have their hours reduced 50% or more in any 6-month period as a result of the plant closing or mass layoff.
- The NY law requires private sector employers in New York State that employ 50 or more full time employees to issue a WARN Notice 90 days before closing a plant. Employers must also issue a notice when there is a layoff that affects either 33 percent of the workforce (at least 25 employees) or 250 employees from a single employment site
Under NY WARN, covered businesses must provide early warnings of closures and layoffs to all affected employees, employee representatives, the Department of Labor, and Local Workforce Development Boards. Affected employee means an employee, whether full-or part-time, who may reasonably be expected to experience an employment loss because of a proposed plant closing, mass layoff, relocation, or covered reduction in hours.
Reliance on Artificial Intelligence (AI for automating some tasks and generating data to assist in making employment decisions ) has been increasing in the workplace. Of concern is algorithmic discrimination when AI unintentionally treats people differently or negatively based on protected characteristics. This can arise from individuals who train algorithms introducing their own biases or when the data used to train an algorithm is not representative of the real world leading to skewed results.
New York City Local Law 144 (2021) requires bias audits of Automated Employment Decision Tools (“AEDTs”) and employer notice to employees and candidates of their use.