Center for Excellence in Higher Education Hit with WARN Act Lawsuit After Aug. 2021 Layoffs

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Center for Excellence in Higher Education, Inc. (CEHE) violated a federal law when it terminated over 300 employees this month without providing 60 days’ advance notice, according to a proposed class action out of Delaware.

The seven-page lawsuit, filed on the same day of the reported mass layoff, claims the non-profit higher education institution, which operates Independence University, Stevens-Henager College, CollegeAmerica and California College San Diego, owes former employees 60 days of wages and benefits for its alleged violation of the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act.

According to the case, the termination of more than 300 workers at the defendant’s Salt Lake City, Utah and Phoenix, Arizona facilities on August 2, or “within 90 days of that date,” meets the definition of a “mass layoff” or “plant closing” under the WARN Act given the event resulted in employment losses for at least 50 employees and 33 percent of the full-time workforce at each location. 

The defendant, as an employer of more than 100 workers who worked a combined total of 4,000 hours per week exclusive of overtime, was required under the WARN Act to provide employees with at least 60 days’ notice before a reasonably foreseeable mass layoff or plant closure, the lawsuit argues.

Despite the WARN Act’s requirements, however, CEHE allegedly failed to provide statutory notice before executing the August 2021 terminations.

The plaintiff, who worked in the defendant’s financial planning department until his August 2 termination, says he and other aggrieved employees are owed 60 days’ worth of wages, salary, commissions, bonuses and accrued holiday and vacation pay, as well as 60 days of pension and 401(k) contributions and COBRA benefits that would have been covered under the workers’ applicable employee benefit plans.

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