HOLLAND (WHTC-AM/FM) — On Friday, Oct. 12, 2018, 55 employees at Yanfeng’s Holland Tech Center were permanently laid off.
A company spokeswoman told WHTC the move is to improve the company’s cost structure and further enhance Yangeng competitiveness.
Last December, company officials told media that no Holland employees would lose jobs, despite layoffs in Lansing and Highland Park. Yanfeng did not appear to file a Federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) in compliance with federal law. The company did file WARNs in advance of the Lansing layoff, which affected 10 workers, and for the 345 laid off in Highland Park.
The WARN Act requires at least a 60-day notice of mass layoffs or plant closings, with three exceptions, according to the State of Michgan fact sheet:
“(1) Faltering company. This exception, to be narrowly construed, covers situations where a company has sought new capital or business in order to stay open and where giving notice would ruin the opportunity to get the new capital or business, and applies only to plant closings;
(2) unforeseeable business circumstances. This exception applies to closings and layoffs that are caused by business circumstances that were not reasonably foreseeable at the time notice would otherwise have been required; and
(3) Natural disaster. This applies where a closing or layoff is the direct result of a natural disaster, such as a flood, earthquake, drought or storm.”
The state’s fact sheet notes that the burden of proof for using those exceptions is on the employer.
It’s unclear if the move is related to tariffs or the softening Chinese economy.
The federal report on September’s employment / unemployment numbers in Michigan is due out on Friday, Oct. 19, 2018.
