Like most egalitarian concepts, they are fine when they seem to advantage you, but when you reach that point when they don't, then they suddenly "need clauses."
It is a capitalist commercial world. Nobody is going feel sorry for you (for very long.) If the company you work for fails, then you suffer as a part of that failure. Life is unfair. Your kids school fees, and your expensive house and car are not sacrosanct. If you are in this position there isn't much else you can do other than take stock and if necessary start again. Very often that is necessary. Quite why another company should feel sorry for you and slot you in above their own equally well qualified employees, is both unlikely and bizarre.
You pay your money and take your choice. If that choice turns out to be a bad one through luck or misjudgement, then you move on. Nobody says "never mind come and work for us as if that never happened." There are opportunities out there that might soften the blow, but it is up to you to compete for them. Neither unions, nor regulation, nor anything else is going to featherbed your life for you. If you have been standing in the wrong queue, then you will need to get to the back of the shortest line for the right queue, or find somewhere else to play where the queues are not so long (probably for good reason.)