“What could I do? It’s pretty tough to close a business and give employees a warning and still have employees that want to work for the evening.”
That is a direct quote from Nick Laskaris, the owner of the now closed Club Wett in the Wisconsin Dells. He also owns the
Mt. Olympus resort and theme parks in the Dells. He closed his Las Vegas-themed bar, which never really fit into an area built on water parks and other family-friendly attractions, without warning his employees. One day they had a job, the next they did not.
What Mr. Laskaris did is perfectly legal in Wisconsin and in many other states, because he had less than 50 employees.
Section 109.07 of the Wisconsin Statutes and Chapter DWD 279 of the Wisconsin Administrative Code provide that, with certain exceptions, businesses employing 50 or more persons in the State of Wisconsin must provide written notice 60 days before implementing a "business (plant) closing" or "mass layoff" in the state.
So in Wisconsin, if you work for a company that has more than 50 employees, you will be given 60 days notice before you lose your job due to the business closing. Less than 50 employees, and you are out of work the next day.
There's more below.
We live in a world where it is considered common courtesy to give an employer two weeks notice before leaving a job. Yet the employer is not bound either socially, morally, or legally to provide any notice whatsoever to an employee when their services are no longer needed.
To answer Mr. Laskaris' question about what he should have done? Well, legally he was not required to do anything. But morally, he should have told his employees personally that he was closing their workplace down, and maybe even offered them two weeks severance pay. That would have been the decent thing to do. They would have still come in and worked their shifts. They may not have been in the best of moods, but they still would have been there, and would have done their jobs.
Business owners complain about undue burdens in the form of laws, regulations, and unions. The reason those laws, regulations, and unions exist is because of situations like this—screwing people over. For what, so you can save a few bucks? So that you can run your business for one more night?
Let's hope Mr. Laskaris can sleep well at night. It's certain his employees won't, as they are thinking about where they are going to come up with next month's rent money.