FACT CHECK!
Verizon (or any covered large company in NJ) can NOT simply pay severance to avoid the notice.
The 90-day notice is REQUIRED, and severance pay (one week per year of service) is an independent, mandatory requirement. If they provide less than 90 days' notice, they are penalized with the additional four weeks of pay.
TO ANSWER ORIGINAL QUESTION
How Verizon Could Avoid It: Instead of laying off 15% (which would be thousands of people nationwide) in just a few days, Verizon could:
- Lay off fewer than 50 employees in New Jersey every 30 days.
- Lay off small groups (e.g., 20 people) across 5 or more distinct 30-day periods.
- By keeping the number below 50 within each rolling 30-day window, they avoid triggering the "Mass Layoff" definition in the statute.
- Voluntary Separation Packages (VSP) being offered would also avoid "NJ WARN'
notifications......BUT, that's not happening this time around.