That’s what workers at Pfizer’s Pearl River, NY, are concerned about. A state law requires employers with 50 or more workers to give both employees and the state 90 days’ notice if they plan to lay off either at least 25 people and 33 percent of their headcount, or at least 250 workers.

But Pfizer employees at the plant, which is located just north of New York City, says the drugmaker is trying to skirt the law by laying off employees in dribs and drabs so they don’t have to notify the state, according to The Times-Herald Record.

Pfizer has laid off at least 90 to 100 people at the facility since merging with Wyeth, the paper writes. Among those laid off were 25 biologists. The drugmaker is ending all early-stage chemistry research by early next year, eliminating 120 chemists, and planning at least 600 more layoffs in 2010, according to the sources who spoke with the paper.

The state law, known as Workers Adjustment and Retraining Notification, is more stringent than federal law. Each violation is worth $500 for up to 90 days, and Pfizer would have to pay back wages and benefits to each employee, the paper notes. By laying off workers in small increments, Pfizer avoids the law’s requirements.

“We haven’t met the requirements for WARN at Pearl River, but we’ll continue to monitor to make sure we meet all our obligations to Pfizer colleagues and to the state of New York,” Pfizer spokesman Chris Loder tells the paper, while declining to say how many people were laid off at the facility.

New York state Department of Labor spokeswoman Karen Williamson tells the paper that the state has reached out to Pfizer to see if employees would need re-employment assistance. The facility employs about 3,000 workers.