Delaware § 1903 - Definitions.

§ 1903. Definitions.

(a) For purposes of this chapter:

(1) “Affected employees” means employees who may reasonably be expected to experience an employment loss as a consequence of a proposed mass layoff, plant closing or relocation by their employer.

(2) “Days” means calendar days.

(3) “Department” means the Delaware Department of Labor.

(4) “Employer” means:

a. Any business enterprise that employs 100 or more employees, excluding part-time employees, or 100 or more employees that work in the aggregate at least 2,000 hours per week.

b. “Employer” does not include the federal or state government or any of their political subdivisions, including any unit of local government or any school district or charter school.

(5) a. “Employment loss” means any of the following:

1. An employment termination, other than a discharge for cause, voluntary departure, or retirement.

2. A mass layoff exceeding 6 months in duration.

3. A reduction in hours of work of more than 50% during each month of any consecutive 6-month period.

b. The term “employment loss” shall not result under circumstances where a mass layoff or plant closing is the result of the relocation or consolidation of part or all of the employer’s business and, before the mass layoff or plant closing, the employer offers to transfer the employee to a different site of employment within a reasonable commuting distance with no more than a 6-month break in employment, or the employer offers to transfer the employee to any other site of employment, regardless of distance, with no more than a 6-month break in employment, and the employee accepts within 30 days of the offer or of the mass layoff or plant closing, whichever is later.

(6) “Mass layoff” means a reduction in workforce which includes all of the following:

a. Is not the result of a plant closing.

b. Results in an employment loss at a single site of employment during any 30-day period for:

1. Fifty or more employees if they make up 33% of the employer’s total workforce at the site, excluding part-time employees or

2. Five hundred or more employees.

(7) “Part-time employee” means an employee who is employed for an average of fewer than 20 hours per week or who has been employed for fewer than 6 of the 12 months preceding the date on which notice is required.

(8) “Plant closing” means the permanent or temporary shutdown of a single site of employment, or 1 or more facilities or operating units within a single site of employment, if the shutdown results in an employment loss at the single site of employment during any 30-day period for 50 or more employees (other than part-time employees).

(9) “Relocation” means the removal of all or substantially all of the industrial or commercial operations of an employer to a different location 50 miles or more away.

(10) “Representative” means an exclusive representative within the meaning of § 9(a) or § 8(f) of the National Labor Relations Act (29 U.S.C. §§ 159(a), 158(f)) or § 2 of the Railway Labor Act (45 U.S.C. § 152).

(11) “Secretary” shall mean the Secretary of the Delaware Department of Labor or a designated subordinate of the Secretary.

(12) “WARN Act” shall mean the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (29 U.S.C. § 2101 et seq.).

81 Del. Laws, c. 312, § 1;