Seniority from 1991???

njjel

An employee worked for us for 8 years until 1991 when she resigned and returned to work for us in 1996. She is now requesting that her first round of employment count toward her seniority. We have no policy that addresses this. She is now in management but was not when she left in 1991. I'm inclined to say that because she was gone over one year her previous time does not get added to her current time. How do you handle this at your work place?

NaeNae55

Our policy states that if rehires are not rehired within 6 months they start the same as any other new hire. The only exception to this is if they were previously qualified for our 401k plan. If so, they are eligible immediately (rather than the year waiting period). In our case, it doesn't matter if they were laid off or if they left voluntarily.

If you don't have a policy that addresses this, you need to get one in place immediately. IMHO a 5 year break is too long to even consider restoring seniority.

Good luck!

HRinFL

Ours is similar to NaeNae55's policy. We have a short term rehire policy that states if an ee returns within six-months, they keep their time. This is only open to those that resign and defer their retirement, because we also have a rehire policy that states if an ee is discharged they have to wait one year before they are eligible to re-apply. This also eliminates those that take their retirement because they also have a one year waiting period before they are eligible for rehire.

dixied

Our policies states: "When an employee is rehired, we will allow their initial service years to count toward calculating vacation days if their initial years-of-service exceeded the break-in-service."

"When a past employee is rehired, we will give them credit for all years (to include previous years) of employment when calculating their years of service with the Company."

The retirement and 401K plans have their own policies according to the SPD.

Gillian3

Most employers who credit previous service have policies which restrict credit to a faily short separation period. I expect that most are less than one year, but you can do that if you want. Probably the most common would be 3 - 6 months.

Whatever

Why, after 9 years, is she requesting that her first round of employment count toward her seniority?

Our policy is that if an ee is layed-off due to a lack work, they return to work with no loss of seniority. Everyone else who is out for 6 months or more, comes back as a new employee and is told so at the time of rehire.

Hunter1

Any break in service (not a layoff) is a loss of seniority. My assistant would have 23 years, but left for a year and has only 15 years. I'll admit that I'm rethinking that policy at present. It seems harsh.

HRinGA

ours is 1 yr. Anyone who returns within 1 yr can count previous service. Anything longer than 1yr and you start from scratch.

HRLASS

I believe we have one policy that will cover approx 1 year after a rif, but that's it, and 5 years is way too long for a bridge.

E Wart

Someone mentioned before that some benefits are controlled by the "policy/contract", like the 401(k) and possibly the group insurance coverage.
I know many "larger" companies who have defined benefits will give prior employees credit if their break is less than 5 years.
We assign an "Adjusted Hire Date" for ANYONE who had been previously employed with us. (I just did one for someone who was employed from 1969-78 that we just rehired.) I find that this is a great way to re-employ some good employees. Basically this date is used to calculate their vacation time. (I don't know of anything else that uses this date for calculations.)
E Wart