As an employer who may be forced to downsize or have layoffs at your company, you may be able to make available a variety of services for your employees who are facing these conditions. These services can be provided at no cost to your company. Most companies that are facing these conditions must provide a 60-day notice of the layoff to workers or their representatives, the state dislocated worker unit, and the appropriate local entity. To learn more about the sixty-day notification of a mass layoff, read Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification-WARN ACT, which explains this law. You may also contact the Massachusetts’ Rapid Response Team for more information.
About Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA)
If your company’s downsizing or layoffs are due to foreign competition or production or services moving to a foreign country the TAA Program may be another way to assist your employees.
How do companies become TAA Certified?
The first step to TAA Certification is to file a petition with the US Department of Labor.
For your convenience, these are the two formats of the petition application below.
TAA Petition Form English
PDF Format | MS Word format
TAA Petition Form Spanish
PDF Format | MS Word format
There are two types of situations that can be investigated towards applying TAA Certification for your company and receive benefits; a Primary Firm and a Secondary Firm.
A Primary Firm is one that is directly affected by increased imports or from shifts in production overseas. A Secondary Firm is one that supplies materials and/or components to a primary firm, assembles or finishes products made by a primary firm, or a family farm or farm workers who do not meet the eligibility requirements of a "group of workers".
What resources are available to employees under the Trade Program?
The Trade Adjustment Assistance services Program includes such benefits and allowances as:
Individual Eligibility
After a workers company is certified, the worker must apply for a determination of individual eligibility for the Program prior to being approved for training or any other benefits provided under the Trade Programs. These applications are referred to in Massachusetts as a “MA Form 1666”. A form 1666 can be filed by an individual with the State at any local MassHire Career Center-near-you.
Program Benefits for TAA eligible workers
The following booklet contains information that will give you a quick synopsis of the rules administered by the MassHire Department of Career Services (MDCS) and Department of Unemployment Assistance (DUA). You may download and/or print the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) Booklet for your review.
The following links should provide useful information on economic development and trade:
Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms (TAA) [https://www.netaac.org/]
Trade Adjustment Assistance for Firms (TAA), a federal program, provides financial assistance to manufacturers affected by import competition. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce, this cost sharing federal assistance program pays for half the cost of consultants or industry-specific experts for projects that improve a manufacturer's competitiveness.
Community Adjustment and Investment Program (CAIP) [Contact the New England Trade Adjustment Assistance Center https://www.sba.gov/offices/headquarters/ofa/resources/4014]
The Community Adjustment and Investment Program [CAIP] was created by Congress through passage of the 1993 NAFTA Implementation Act which also created the North American Development Bank [NADB], which provides the capital for the CAIP and is responsible for its administration. The subsequent Presidential Executive Order No. 12916 gave oversight for the program to a Finance Committee consisting of several Federal Agencies. The purpose of the CAIP is to help U.S. communities that suffer significant job losses as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA].
Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grant Program (TAACCCT) [http://www.doleta.gov/taaccct/]
TAACCCT provides community colleges and other eligible institutions of higher education with funds to expand and improve their ability to deliver education and career training programs that can be completed in two years or less, are suited for workers who are eligible for training under the TAA for Workers program, and prepare program participants for employment.
For additional information about the Trade Program please go Trade-program-resources and or visit the U.S. Department of Labor website.