in a handbook can still be enforceable, and oral agreements can override the written contract. Economic layoffs Many job terminations in America are economic layoffs, where employers believe that employees are redundant. In most countries, economic layoffs are separately regulated because of the conflicts of interest between workers, management and shareholders, and the risk that workers are discharged to boost profits even if this damages the long-term sustainability of enterprise. The ILO Termination of Employment Convention, 1982 requires a severance allowance if the termination is for economic reasons, as well as consultation with worker representatives about ways to avoid layoffs. Most developed countries regard information and consultation in the event of any economic change as a fundamental right. The United States government also helped write Control Council Law No 22 for post-war Germany which enabled unions to collectively bargain for elected work councils, which would have the right to participate in decisions about dismissals. However, there are no state or federal laws requiring severance pay or employee participation in layoff decisions. Where employment contracts or collective agreements contain "just cause" provisions, these have been interpreted to give employers broad discretion, and immunity from the social consequences for the laid off workforce. The only statutory right for employees is for extreme cases of mass layoffs under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988. The WARN Act regulates any "plant closing" where there is an "employment loss" of 33% of employees if that is over 50 employees, or any case of over 500 employee layoffs, and the business employs 100 persons or more. In these cases, employers have to give 60 days notice to employee representatives such as a union, or to each employee if they have none, and the State. Employment loss is defined to include reduction of over 50% of working time, but exclude cases where an employee is offered a suitable alternative job within reasonable commuting distance. Despite the absence of any duty to consult, employers can argue three main defenses for failure to give notice of mass layoff. First, an employer can argue that they believed in good faith that less notice was necessary to improve chances of a capital injection. Second, an employer may argue that business circumstances were unforeseen. Third, an employer can argue it had reasonable grounds for believing its failure was not a violation of the Act. The only remedies are pay