Since the beginning of the year, IBM has laid off anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 employees in its North American offices, some of whom have been told they can apply for open positions in foreign countries, such as India, Brazil, Romania, Slovenia and other exotic locales.
And many of those layoffs were done without the 60 day's public notice required by the Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification Act, because the number of affected employees didn't exceed the reporting thresholds. Known as the WARN Act, the federal notification law kicks in when there is a plant closing or a mass layoff of 50 or more employees -- if that number represents one-third of the workforce at a specific site -- or lays off 500 or more employees at a single worksite.
