Phillips 66 California Layoffs 2026: What Employees Should Know

What the filing says

These are the details as Phillips 66reported them to the state. The EDD publishes every notice, and these figures come from the state's report as retrieved on Aug 13, 2026.

How much notice the law requires

California's WARN Act requires 60 days of advance written notice before a covered mass layoff, and its only statutory exception is a physical calamity or an act of war — far narrower than federal law's three. Who is covered and how the thresholds are counted is in our California WARN Act guide.

Phillips 66 severance: what to check before you sign

A severance offer is not the notice pay the WARN Act describes. Severance you were already promised — in a contract, a handbook, or a union agreement — cannot be used to satisfy that obligation, though Labor Code section 1402 does let an employer reduce a back-pay award by voluntary payments it was never required to make. A release may also give up more than you expect. Justin reviews severance agreements before workers sign. What to check before you decide is in our full guide to the California WARN Act.

Two things worth doing this week either way. File for unemployment now — WARN money does not reduce it, and the filings here run through Dec 1, 2026, so you do not have to wait for your last day. And keep every document, including the notice itself and anything showing when it arrived.

What your notice was required to include

Timing is only half of what Labor Code section 1401 asks for. The notice itself has to contain specific things, and California added most of this list for notices issued on or after January 1, 2026. Every notice on this page falls after that date. If you kept your copy, read it against the full six-item checklist in our WARN Act guide — everything federal law requires, whether transition help is being coordinated, working contact details for your workforce board and for the employer itself, and CalFresh information.

Source: Labor Code section 1401, as amended by SB 617, effective January 1, 2026. A notice missing something from that list is not automatically a violation with a remedy attached — whether a gap matters depends on the employer, the action, and what else happened.

Questions people are asking

Where a layoff can raise a legal question

A layoff is lawful on its own, and nothing below is a statement about Phillips 66. These are the places California law can still come into play, depending on the facts of your own situation.

• The severance you were asked to signA release can give up claims you did not know you had, and the terms are sometimes negotiable.
• How you were selectedA reduction in force still cannot be used to cut someone for a protected reason such as age, disability, pregnancy, or a complaint they made.
• Your final paycheckCalifornia sets when final wages are due at termination, and unpaid time or accrued vacation can carry penalties on top of the wages.

General information about California law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.

What has been reported

Press coverage of this layoff, summarized and attributed. This is reporting rather than the filing itself, and we did not independently verify it.

Phillips 66 filed for 277 layoffs across 2026 tied to the permanent closure of its Los Angeles-area refinery. E&E News reported the cuts are phased: 82 employees in Wilmington and 40 in Carson on April 3, 2026, then 111 in Wilmington and 44 in Carson on December 1, 2026, with the filings citing permanent closure as the reason.

The refinery, which could process 139,000 barrels a day, had been slated for closure since 2024 and ran its last barrel of crude in late 2025. BOE Report noted the site employed roughly 600 workers plus about 300 contractors, and that over half of the employees were hourly workers represented by the United Steelworkers.

Sources: E&E News by POLITICO (opens in a new tab) · BOE Report (opens in a new tab)

What the numbers show

• The filings name 2 locations: Wilmington and Carson.
• They cover 3 separate addresses rather than a single site, so co-workers at different locations may have received different dates.
• Every notice is filed as a closure rather than a partial reduction, meaning the sites themselves are shutting down.
• The jobs do not all end on the same day. The filings list 4 separate last days of work, running from April 3, 2026 to December 1, 2026.
• The shortest gap between notice and last day here is 60 days, close to the statewide median of 61 days across every notice on file.
• By headcount it sits in the top 10% of the 599 employer layoffs tracked here.
• The EDD records the employer's sector as Manufacturing.
• The 298 workers leaving Phillips 66 re-enter a job market where Los Angeles County unemployment stood at 5.3% in June 2026, above the 5.2% statewide rate (Bureau of Labor Statistics, not seasonally adjusted).
• The filings came in waves: 2 notices in January 2026 covering 155 jobs, then 2 notices in February 2026 covering 122 jobs, then 2 notices in April 2026 covering 16 jobs, then one notice in July 2026 covering 5 jobs.

These are counts and comparisons drawn from the published filings, not findings about Phillips 66.

Free job-search help near the affected sites

America's Job Center of California is the state's no-cost network for laid-off workers: help filing and keeping unemployment benefits, federally funded retraining, and résumé and interview coaching. Your WARN notice may name one; these are the closest to the sites in these filings.

• South Bay One-Stop Business & Career Center - Carson (opens in a new tab)

  801 E Carson Street, Carson, CA 90745 · 310-680-3870

  Affiliate center (partial services) · about 1.9 miles from the Carson site

• Harbor Gateway WorkSource Center & AJCC (opens in a new tab)

  1111 Figueroa Place, Wilmington, CA 90744 · 310-732-5700

  Affiliate center (partial services) · about 2.5 miles from the Wilmington site

Locations and hours change — confirm before visiting, or find another center with the EDD's center locator (opens in a new tab). Directory: U.S. Department of Labor, Jul 31, 2026; distances are straight-line from the address in the filing.

Other layoffs filed in Los Angeles County around the same time

158 employers have WARN notices on file in Los Angeles County, covering 17,863 workers. These filed within about a quarter of this one.

• HRL Laboratories383 workers
• Lakeshore Learning Materials, LLC280 workers
• Lodging Dynamics Hospitality Group, LLC278 workers
• Saks & Company LLC231 workers
• L.A. Care Health Plan225 workers
• FormFactor, Inc.220 workers

Listed because they appear in the same county in the same public data. No connection between these employers is implied.

California wage claims filed against Phillips 66

California employers face claims under the Private Attorneys General Act (PAGA), which lets an employee sue for civil penalties over Labor Code violations on behalf of the state. The state publishes every filing. 3 PAGA cases naming this employer are on that record, including the settlements below.

These are outcomes in other people’s cases, obtained by other lawyers, taken from the state’s public filing record. They are not results of this firm, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. What any individual recovers depends on their own hours, pay records, and dates.

• Proposed settlement · 2025

  $12,500,000

  Workers at Phillips 66 refineries in California alleged they were not paid for all hours worked, including time spent donning and doffing protective equipment and performing shift turnover duties. They also claimed the company failed to provide proper meal and rest breaks, rounded time records, and did not provide accurate wage statements or timely final wages. The parties reached a proposed settlement of $12,500,000 to resolve these claims without any admission of liability.

  Covered all current and former non-exempt or hourly paid employees who worked for Phillips 66 in California at any time during the Class Period. The settlement resolved class claims as well as PAGA penalties.

  Employees covered

  1,750

  Attorneys' fees

  $4,166,666

  To the state (LWDA)

  $300,000

  UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA · 3:18-CV-00292-RS · Phillips 66 denied liability; a settlement is not an admission.

• Court-approved settlement · 2018

  $5,500,000

  Current and former employees of Phillips 66 Company filed a class action lawsuit. The court entered a final judgment approving a settlement that releases all claims against the company. The settlement dismisses the case with prejudice.

  Covered all similarly situated current and former employees. The settlement resolved class claims as well as PAGA penalties.

  Attorneys' fees

  $1,375,000

  To the state (LWDA)

  $37,500

  United States District Court, Northern District of California · 17-cv-00163 · Phillips 66 denied liability; a settlement is not an admission.

A PAGA case is not a class action, and there is nothing to opt out of. A PAGA settlement resolves civil penalties owed to the state — most of which the state keeps — and it does not necessarily resolve your own unpaid wages, missed break premiums, or final-paycheck penalties. If you worked here and were not paid correctly, that is a separate question worth asking about. How California wage claims work.

Other Manufacturing layoffs in California

Employers the EDD lists in the same sector with WARN notices on file statewide.

• Blue Diamond Growers280 workers
• Bumble Bee Foods, LLC253 workers
• LeeMAH Electronics212 workers
• Ventura Coastal210 workers
• G3 Enterprises66 workers
• Eargo, Inc.57 workers

Grouped by the industry the EDD recorded on the filings. No connection between these employers is implied.