Home Depot Faces WARN Act Probe After Nearly 800 Georgia Layoffs

Home Depot’s cut of 797 corporate roles in Georgia is now facing a WARN Act probe, with lawyers examining whether the company gave workers enough advance notice before layoffs that were set to start March 31. Strauss Borrelli PLLC said it is reviewing whether Home Depot complied with federal requirements after the company filed notice with Georgia officials on January 28.

The central issue is timing. The WARN Act requires at least 60 calendar days’ written notice before a mass layoff or facility closing, giving employees time to look for work, seek retraining and prepare financially. If an employer falls short, it can face back pay and benefits liability for the notice period. Home Depot has said it complied with the law, but the investigation means that claim is now being tested outside the company.

The layoff notice covered jobs tied to Home Depot’s Atlanta-area operations and remote corporate staff. Reporting said fewer than 150 of the eliminated roles were based in the company’s Atlanta offices, while the rest were remote. CBS Atlanta reported the cuts affected around 800 employees at Home Depot’s Atlanta support center. The layoffs also came as corporate employees were told to return to the office five days a week starting the week of April 6, a move CEO Ted Decker said was meant to increase the company’s “speed and agility” and strengthen ties to customers and frontline associates.

For associates and store managers, the impact is indirect but real. Even though the cuts were corporate rather than store-based, they affect the support structure behind merchandising, operations, technology and store service. A layoff of this size can ripple through internal processes at a time when spring selling season is underway and stores are balancing pro demand, seasonal traffic and staffing needs.

The probe also lands against a softer business backdrop. Home Depot reported $41.4 billion in sales for the third quarter of fiscal 2025 and said comparable sales rose 0.2%. In its fiscal 2025 annual report, the company said comparable sales grew 0.3% for the full company and 0.5% in the U.S., while several dynamics were pressuring housing and home-improvement demand. That makes the Georgia layoffs part of a broader cost and operations reset, not just a one-off headcount move.