Reduction in Force: A Compliance Checklist

Before anyone makes a list

Write the business case first. The reason for the reduction — in numbers, dated before selections begin. It is the document the whole defense rests on.
Define the decisional units. Which departments, sites, or functions are in scope, and who decides within each. These boundaries also drive the OWBPA disclosures later — they have to be right twice.
Set selection criteria in writing before applying them. Objective where possible (role elimination, documented performance, skills the go-forward plan needs). Criteria invented after the list exists look exactly like what they are.
Brief the selecting managers. Criteria only; no “fresh perspectives,” no “digital natives,” no retirement-eligibility shortcuts. Their notes and emails are all discoverable.
Structure the legal review under privilege now. Adverse-impact analyses and alternatives discussions should run through counsel from the start — privilege can’t be retrofitted.

Testing the list

Run the adverse-impact analysis. Age (40+, and within bands), race, sex, and other protected traits, by decisional unit — selected versus retained. Done under privilege, before the list is final, while it can still change.
Re-run it after every revision. Lists move. The analysis that mattered is the one run on the list you actually used.
Check each name for individual red flags. Recent protected activity — complaints, FMLA, accommodations, workers’ comp — plus contracts, visa dependencies, and leave status. A defensible group decision can still contain an indefensible individual one.
Document the alternatives considered. Attrition, hiring freezes, hours reductions, redeployment. You don’t have to choose them; you have to be able to say they were weighed.

Legal mechanics

Do the WARN math early. Federal WARN generally applies at 100+ employees, with 60 days’ notice for a plant closing (50+ at a single site) or mass layoff (500+, or 50–499 if a third of the site). Count the 90-day aggregation window — staged layoffs can add up to a triggering event retroactively.
Then check state mini-WARNs. Several states impose longer notice, lower thresholds, or broader definitions than federal law. This is one of the areas where the state layer regularly surprises multistate employers. Ohio’s R.C. 4113.31 (in force since September 30, 2025) requires employers to follow federal WARN and to send notice, with state-specified contents, to the ODJFS director and the chief elected officials of both the city and the county; its trigger text omits the federal one-third test, though the statute says it sets no different standard. Michigan has no mandatory state WARN law.
Build OWBPA-compliant releases for 40+. Group programs require 45 days to consider plus the decisional-unit disclosures (the group covered, eligibility factors, time limits, the job titles and ages of those eligible or selected, and the ages of those in the same job classification or unit who are not); individual separations require 21 days. Seven-day revocation either way. A non-compliant release does not waive the age claim, even if it releases everything else, and the employee can keep the severance and still sue.
Apply severance terms consistently. Deviations happen; undocumented deviations testify badly. If severance lives in an ERISA plan, follow the plan.
Get the exit mechanics right per state. Final-pay deadlines, PTO payout rules, commission treatment, expense reimbursements, COBRA and benefits notices. Mechanical misses carry statutory penalties and erode goodwill you’ll want at release-signing time.

The day, and after

Script the conversations. Managers get a short script, an FAQ, and a hard rule: the reason is the business case, stated once, kindly, without improvisation. “Off-script kindness” — you were great, this makes no sense to me — is quoted in every demand letter.
Sequence the day with dignity. Notifications first, individually, in private; survivors briefed the same day; access changes handled without theater. People remember how this was done long after they stop being angry about that it was done.
Preserve the whole record. Business case, criteria, drafts of the list, analyses, scripts, notices — one file, retained as if it will be produced, because if anything follows, it will be.
Hold the line after. Backfilling an “eliminated” position weeks later, with someone outside the protected class, is the single most quoted fact in RIF complaints. If the need truly returns, document why and consider recall rights first.

Timing note

Worked backward, a clean RIF of any size wants 6–10 weeks: criteria and analysis before selections finalize, WARN’s 60 days if triggered (plus planning time before notice), and OWBPA’s 45-day consideration window. That window runs from the final offer and can end after the separation date; the release takes effect only when the 7-day revocation period after signing ends. The calendar, not the law, is what most often forces bad shortcuts — set it first.