Collins v. Gee West Seattle LLC

CEBULL, Chief U.S. District Judge,

dissenting:

The majority opinion establishes a new bright-line rule that workers who abandon their jobs because the business is closing have not “voluntarily departed” within the meaning of the WARN Act. For the following reasons, I respectfully dissent from the opinion of Judge Smith and the concurrence of Judge Rymer.

If Congress intended that every employee who leaves a job upon notice that the business is closing has “voluntarily departed,” then the WARN Act would say so. In fact, the DOL commentary on the passage of the WARN Act makes clear that a worker…