Legal Question in Employment Law in California

Answer: legal? A company can answer the question whether they would rehire someone as long as the answer is not done with malice. Thus if they said it with malice, meaning they said something defamatory and didn't have probable cause to believe it, (for example, "Bob was fired for stealing, we won't rehire him" when in reality he just quit) you have a good case to sue for that as its not protected speech. Note it is an adverse employment action so if they have no basis for it at all there could be claims for intentional or negligence torts here as well.

Note has the employer ever told you this or just the recruiter? You would need to talk to the HR Director to verify this is accurate. You could also retain counsel in a limited representation agreement to contact the employer and ask for a sit down meeting to discuss this situation and to help iron out what happened and whether they'll rehire you or not. Also in other respects if you're 40 and older, and you sound like it, you may be a victim of age discrimination. Thus if they end up hiring someone younger for the position you applied for and were qualified you could have a claim. This is the possible reason as all I know about this matter is you worked somewhere over 25 years which to me means you're probably over 40 and would explain this.

You should check the companies policies. I don't know the specifics of your situation. I will note I've seen failure to give notice 2 weeks per a company policy cause someone to be labeled ineligible for rehire when they quit and reapplied found it out. The company said in court they could waive the requirement and hire the person but declined to do so unless the person had a critical skill. Then again I know of HR directors who will say they have an unwritten company policy. But they still should give a reason to do it.

Find a local attorney for more help. Best of luck.

There is nothing unlawful about a company having a blanket policy to refuse to rehire someone within two years of that person's resignation. Now, the company cannot selectively enforce this policy to engage in a form of age discrimination or discrimination based on some other unlawful classification -- but the policy itself is not unlawful.