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Question Details: I am a chef who was made redundant due to restructuring. Five months later, my employer hired someone else for the same role. Does my employer have a legal obligation to offer the role to me before advertising it?
Filed under Employment Law | 1418 View(s)
Community Law Wellington & Hutt Valley
It depends on the situation. In your case, as you were no longer employed and it had been 5 months, there was no strict obligation to re-hire you. If for instance it occurred within a few days, you may be able to challenge the legitimacy of your dismissal if it could be shown that the employer knew the role was still needed and fired you anyhow. However in your case, due to the timeframe (5 months), the employer would likely be able to justify the new hiring and did not have to offer the job to previous staff first.
Answered 14 Feb 2013. The IMPORTANT NOTICE below is part of this answer.
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