Dear colleague,
There are no legalities involved as far as re-employment of any individual who had left the organisation. It is solely discretionary and governed by the HR policies of the given organisation.
Probation period usually is applied to judge the suitability of an individual after having seen him perform on the role during the probationary period. If any person having performed successfully on a role during a long stint had left and wants to rejoin, I don't believe , putting him under probation will make any sense.
Putting under probation to someone who left and is being reemployed will also depend on his new role, level- worker, supervisory or Managerial, and earlier length of service as well as how he had performed apart from reasons he had left.
Usually, it may be better to put 'workman' level person's re-employment under probation.
Regards,
Vinayak Nagarkar
HR and Employee Relations Consultant