Connecticut restaurants have begun to notify the state of major layoffs, citing Gov. Ned Lamont’s order this week that restaurants close for any on-premise service besides take-out orders.
According to notices posted by the Department of Labor on Thursday, the Chowder Pot, located on Hartford’s Brainard Road, will lay off 95 of its workers, including servers, line cooks, hosts and others. The cuts will be in effect as long as the closure order is in effect, the seafood restaurant said, however it also said it doesn’t intend to permanently close.
DOL also posted Thursday a layoff notice from Oxford’s 121 Restaurant and Bar, located in Waterbury-Oxford Airport. The eatery said it has laid off 41 people effective Wednesday and that the closure notice should be considered permanent, as the owners do not expect conditions to improve soon enough.
“Given the executive order, and with no end to the pandemic in sight, we regret that we have no choice but to lay off our entire workforce on short notice,” the filing said.
The filings are required by the federal WARN Act, which mandates that employers with over 100 workers provide advance notice of layoffs affecting 50 or more of their employees at a single site.
