The Gap Failed to Provide Remote Workers Advance Notice Before Mass Layoff, Class Action Says

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A proposed class action lawsuit claims The Gap failed to give remote employees at least 60 days’ advance notice prior to a mass layoff earlier this year.

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The 12-page lawsuit says the retailer, which terminated more than 1,800 employees worldwide and over 500 workers at its San Francisco headquarters in April 2023, violated the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act when it laid off remote employees without providing the proper advance notice required by law.

The suit relays that although affected workers located in San Francisco received at least 60 days’ notice of the layoff, the plaintiff—a Montana resident who had worked for The Gap since 2017—claims that he was, in fact, given only 15 days’ notice because he worked remotely out of the company’s headquarters. The man says that he was only informed of his termination, which was effective May 12, in a notice he received on April 27 of this year.

According to the case, The Gap offered the plaintiff, like other affected employees, a lump sum severance under its standard transition benefits plan, but only if he agreed to waive his claims under the WARN Act. The plaintiff did not sign, the complaint says.

Media reports share that the April 2023 terminations was the second round of layoffs for The Gap after it cut roughly 500 corporate jobs last September amid rising inflation and weak sales.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone employed by The Gap and terminated in a mass layoff around April 2023 who was not given 60 days’ notice of termination, but who was assigned The Gap’s San Francisco headquarters as their home base, was assigned work from that location or was required to report to managers located in that headquarters.

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