Former Friendly’s location in Jamestown. Image from Google Map
SYRACUSE – Senator Charles Schumer has provided an update into his investigation into the Friendly’s restaurant chain and whether or not it violated federal law by closing down several locations – including one in Jamestown – without properly notifying employees ahead of time.
On Monday Schumer visited the closed Friendly’s restaurant in Dewitt, NY, just east of Syracuse, where he announced his plan to introduce new legislation in the Senate that will strengthen the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act and increase the circumstances under which employers must give two months’ notice to their employees of imminent and large-scale layoffs.
“This issue is not just about Friendly’s, it’s about big companies treating their workers with some honor and some decency,” he said.
Schumer detailed a gaping loophole in the WARN Act that permitted the Friendly’s Corporation to shut down 15 locations overnight and lay-off hundreds of employees without so much as a day’s notice.
Schumer said he plans to introduce new legislation in the Senate that will strengthen the WARN Act by closing the “single employment site” loophole and consequently increase the circumstances under which employers must give two months’ notice to their employees of imminent and large-scale layoffs.
Schumer said that this sort of mass layoff shouldn’t happen to workers without fair notice and urged his colleagues to pass his WARN Act-strengthening legislation immediately upon its introduction.
Leave a Reply