Quote:Depends. I don´t know how it is in the USA.
If you have a working contract that is attached to a product, when you finish the product the contract ends. But usually then you don´t call it "lay off", it is just a natural end of contract.
In the US they more or less can tell you on a Friday that you won't have to come back on Monday.
Now consider that in my case, my employer has to give me a 3 month warning ( by snail mail ) and give me 2 days /month to look for another job. ( along with a lay off package that gets more and more expensive [ for them ] the longer you have been in the company )
Add to that the fact that if it's more than 10 people that are fired, it automatically becomes an Employment Recovery Plan... that needs to go through all the union circus... which will add at least 4 months between the time the lay off is announced and the day you receive the letter. ( remember you have 2/3 more month before actually being fired ). So basically in Froggy Land a mass ( mass being defined as more than 10 people ) lay off is at least a 6 month thing.
Personally I don't know which one is best...Both have advantages and drawbacks.
In Froggy Land we have what we call
Intérim Jobs to compensate for the production peaks.
They are people hired from other companies ( Manpower, Addeco, ... there's many ) and they are here to buff the workforce when the production needs it... and to be laid off ( figuratively speaking, they are still employed by their original company ) when the production don't needs them anymore.