Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
2007 saw the largest number of complaints under the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act (USERRA), enforced by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel since the Iraq war began.
More than 1,500 Guard members or Reservists say their employers fell short of the law, which requires them to re-employ service members with full seniority and benefits, not at the level they were when they left, but as if they'd never left.
Kim Watts is the executive director of the Utah Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR). He believes the issue first cropped up with the September 11 terrorist attacks.
"Since 2001, we've seen, obviously, a dramatic increase in the activity of reserve component service members," He said.
In other words, prior to the attacks, most employers knew their workers who were in the Guard and Reserve needed one weekend off a month and two weeks in summer, but they had no idea what to do with an employee put on active duty or volunteering for a longer stretch of time.
Watts doesn't believe it's malicious on the part of the employers so much as a lack of education. "We found that employers were not familiar with what the law required when there were longer periods of military service," he said.
That's what his office does; it educates employers about what is required of them and helps guardsmen and reservists protect their rights.
He says a service member who believes he or she is the victim of discrimination can get help by contacting employer support of the guard and reserve. On ESGR's Web site, people can find out who their state's ombudsmen are and find out more about the process to resolve a dispute. They can also call 1-800-336-4590 and select option "1" to get assistance over the phone with USERRA complaints.
Watts says most employers are not only willing but happy to comply once they understand the law, and it can usually be done through mediation. In fact, he says the numbers show it.
The ESGR reports it took in more than 13,000 requests for help in 2007, nearly double what it did the year before, but the number of actual USERRA cases dropped from more than 3,000 in fiscal 2006 to just under 2,400 in fiscal 2007, meaning more cases are being resolved by mediation rather than legal action.
E-mail: bbruce@ksl.com
