Every little helps: permanent benefits, contract interpretation, and 'fire and rehire'

'Fire and rehire' describes a scenario where the employer proposes a modification of contractual terms and conditions and uses dismissal to elicit agreement from a reluctant worker. Ordinarily, contractual variation requires mutual agreement supported by consideration. Where the worker refuses to accept the proposed variation, in 'fire and rehire' the employer terminates the existing contracts with notice and then issues new contracts containing the revised terms and conditions. Either the worker refuses, in which case she is out of a job. Or she accepts the new contracts with revised terms, in which case the employer gets its way.