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When Toys ‘R’ Us announced in early 2018 that it would be closing all of its 735 stores across the United States, protests erupted once employees learned that they would not be receiving any severance pay. At the time the announcement was made, Toys ‘R’ Us was in full compliance with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, 29 U.S.C. §2101, et seq. (“WARN”), and New Jersey’s Millville Dallas Airmotive Plant Job Loss Act, N.J.S.A. 34:21-1, et seq. (“NJ WARN”), both of which require at least 60-days advance written notice of a mass layoff. By June 2018, more than 31,000 workers had been laid off across the country, including over 2,000 New Jersey employees. Although its employees were initially denied any severance, the public backlash prompted the establishment of a $20 million severance fund. This fund, however, did little to assuage the protesters demanding that WARN and NJ WARN be revamped to afford greater protections for employees impacted by mass layoffs and plant closures.
