We had a recent mass furlough at work and, IMHO, a very high percentage of the furloughed workers were not exactly “the sharpest pencils in the desk,” which only makes sense to me because during past mass layoffs at our company, it it was exactly the same phenomenon. (I may, myself, be “the dullest pencil in the desk” for what that that is worth. )
But I digress. For some reason I was under the (most likely) misguided opinion that if any furloughed workers were offered to return to work, then all workers furloughed at the same time would have to be offered a return to work at the same time.
Are there laws regarding whether some furloughed workers can be offered to return to work sooner than others?
There may maximum occupancy and safe distances rules that would prevent businesses from returning to full staff size if they re-open. Unless there’s something like a union contract involved, or terms of government money like from the Paycheck Protection act then I would expect a lot of partial returns to work. Most people are only employed at will anyway so a business can do whatever it wants in regard to rehiring people.
If they only need three people to come back, I can’t think of anything that would force them to call back more than three people. Some companies have a policy of giving priority to employees with more seniority, but that only applies to employees in the same job category.
Generally, and employer who is only partially re-opening can bring back whichever workers they choose. But there may be restrictions:
- legal: protected classes. If they bring back only white workers, and leave all the black or hispanic workers on furlough, that could get them in trouble.
- contracts: often union contracts the company has signed will require that workers be recalled in order of seniority, productivity, or similar restrictions.