rerehiring laid off workers

hkp

When an employee is laid off with the promise that they may be re-hired if an opening becomes available, do you have to offer them any job that becomes available, even if it is not the same as the job they had before? What if the job that becomes available is almost the same as before, just in a different department? If we do have to offer the job to someone who was laid off, how long after the layoff do I have to honor this?

Thank you for any help.

Margaret Morford

Your own policy will govern this. If you don't have a policy, your past practice will govern. You may want to draft a policy about this. Be careful about hard and fast rules in your policy so that you don't have to rehire that worker you finally got rid of. I'd put wording like, "Every effort will be made to rehire employees that are laid off due to lack of work provided the employee has maintained a good work record during his/her tenure with the company."

Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]

Don D

I would avoid 'every effort'. Somebody out there will challenge even that and will show that you did not make every effort. A simple statement like this, if any statement at all, might work, "Personnel who are laid off may submit application for future opportunities with the company." I have seen the EEOC challenge a statement that included, "....employees who are eligible for rehire." Then you have to enact criteria for that and explain it as well. I think its important to tell them they may certainly apply, but to put the onus on them to actually find about openings and to apply so that they don't think you're going to do that for them automatically. Over half of our staff are in a bargaining unit, so they naturally have contractual recall rights.

ray a

>"Personnel >who are laid off may submit application for future opportunities with >the company."


Our handbook has a statement that says essentially the same thing. First, how do you determine who is laid off? We use a ranking system. The lowest ranked are the first to go. Since they were proven low performers, it is rare we bring them back. We assume we can find other people with more ability. Second, I never make any promises about recall. I just tell them they are eligible for rehire (assuming it is strictly lack of work) and can apply like anyone else.