Rehire

We had an employee with breast cancer. When it became apparant that she would not be able to work for a long period of time, she went on disability and we replaced her position.

Per our COO she "resigned" as she was not able to perform her duties.

This employee has dealt with this illness for the past 18 months and has been off of our payroll for over a year. She has now received a clean bill of health, and as her previous position had become vacant we just rehired her back to her old position.

This employee had in 9 years prior to her illness.


Employees who voluntarily resign their position and ask to come back have been rehired and treated as a "new" employee with respects to benefits - including vacation, sick leave and insurance.

The department manager would like to have this employee be treated as a "new" employee which would greatly reduce her vacation and sick leave benefits.

This employee was vested in the 401k and is able to resume her status in the 401k per our plan rules.

Does anyone have a policy regarding rehires after a disability or illness?


Comments

  • 6 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Our policy is if the person was gone for more than one year, then they start over as a new employee. Less than a year, then their seniority is reduced by the amount of time they were gone.
  • G,it sounds like you are'nt really sure whether the employee ever resigned. Was there ever any formal termination of employement? If not, then she was on leave and can resume employment at her last seniority minus the 18 months of leave.

    Other than that, I like Ray's policy.
  • We adjust a rehire's hire date by the amount of time they previously worked whether they resigned, quit, were fired, etc. It doesn't matter how long they were employed or how long they have been gone. They have a "most recent hire date" and an Adjusted Hire Date (AHD). We use the adjusted hire date to calculate vacation time. Most recent hire, they would still have the first day of month after 90 days waiting for insurance.
    E Wart
  • We too use the one year rule as a rule of thumb. Of course there are exceptions, especially for more senior positions but this is handled as being negotiated prior to them being rehired; not after the fact.
  • G: Follow your published policy, as set by your precedent re-hire actions. Regardless of what is published, if you have travelled down a different road then you must follow through on that road and then reset the rules if it is desired to be changed by the senior leadership.

    PORK
  • We also use the one year rule Ray put forth, and it works quite well. However, you may also have other "rules" regarding bridging service if you have a defined benefit pension plan, where the plan document would dictate how rehired employees are to be treated for pension calculation purposes.
Sign In or Register to comment.