Maryland offers employees further assistance when layoffs occur. These do not affect the requirements of the WARN Act.
Economic Stabilization Act. Maryland's voluntary “quick response” program is an early-warning incentive program, designed to minimize the adverse effects of a shutdown to employers, employees, and communities. The program provides that employers with 50 or more employees (as opposed to 100 under the WARN Act) that plan to relocate, close, or reduce their workforce over a 3-month period, by the greater of 25 percent or 15 employees, should give workers advance notice of at least 90 days, if possible.
Closings or reductions include impending mergers, liquidations, sales, shutdowns, or relocations. However, they do not include layoffs resulting solely from a labor dispute, seasonal factors, or an employer's bankruptcy filing under federal bankruptcy law; reductions occurring in state-run commercial, industrial, or agricultural ...