Hiring a new employee is often a very significant investment in terms of the company’s operations. According to the main rule, the employer has the freedom to choose their employees. However, the employer’s freedom of choice is limited at least by the rights of the employer’s current and former employees and the prohibition of discrimination.
First laid-off, part-time employees and those subject to the employer’s re-employment obligation
Before hiring a new employee, the employer must verify whether the company has laid off, part-time employees, or employees subject to the employer’s re-employment obligation, whose education, experience and skills match the job offered. These employees have the right to the work offered before it can be offered to an outsider.
The job must first be offered to the laid-off employee. If there is no such laid-off employee, the job must be offered to part-time employees next. Under the Employment contracts act, they have the right to additional work when it is available. if there are no part-time employees, the employer still has to check whether there are employees whose employment relationships have been dismissed in the last nine months due production and economic grounds. If such employees are job seekers at the TE office, they must be offered work.
The supreme court has held that in some situations the obligation to offer work can also apply to temporary employees, even though according to the law temporary employees do not have an automatic right based on the law to have their employment extended. In addition, it should be remembered that employees on family leave have their statutory right to return from family leave primarily to their work according to the employment contract.
Recruitment of office holders and government employees
After checking the previous, the employer can recruit a new employee from outside the company. Recruiting a new employee is a challenging and important process from a business point of view. Unfortunately, we cannot help in choosing the right person, but we make sure that our clients carry out the recruitment process formally correctly, in compliance with the legislation. In this way, possible problem situations are prevented in advance.
Already when announcing the job, the employer must ensure that the content of the job advertisement is not discriminatory or inappropriate. Without a justified work-related reason, the advertisement can not identify, for example, only persons of a certain gender or ethnic origin, or of a certain age.
In a job interview, it is good to note that, in principle, the applicant must not be asked questions that can in one way, or another be based on the presumption of discrimination. For example, questions about family relationships, pregnancy, political activity or sexual orientation are prohibited if they do not have a justified connection to the job offered. The employee selection criteria should also be linked to the requirements arising from the job duties.
For example, if the employer ousts a more qualified person in the selection than a person of the other gender who was selected, the employer may be guilty of discrimination as defined in the Equality Act. Discrimination in hiring can also be the case if the job seeker shows that the non-selection was influenced, for example, by age, disability or another discriminatory reason related to the person.
In connection with the hiring decision, the employer must ensure that only information necessary for the employment relationship is collected about the employee and that the employee’s background is not investigated more than is justified and necessary. The information should always be collected only from the employee themselves, unless otherwise agreed separately. In addition, it must be ensured that the information is stored as required by legislation.
Recruitment of office holders and government employees
The recruitment of office holders and government employees is more regulated than that of employees: hiring usually requires a public application procedure, the person selected for the position must meet the eligibility requirements for the position, and the employer must strictly follow the criteria mentioned in the vacancy notice in the merit comparison. We also help our customers in filling positions.
