02/ 01/ 2005
by Peter Weaver
Our country welcomes back troops who served in the Middle East with open arms—and small businesses should follow suit. Employers should be aware of reservists’ rights that guarantee access to their old jobs when they return from Reserve or National Guard Duty in Iraq and elsewhere around the globe.
It’s spelled out under the Uniformed Services Employment Reemployment Rights Act, which says employees returning from military duty must notify employers of their intention to go back to work, and employers must find a place for them.
“Employers are supposed to provide the same job employees left when they were called up for active duty,” says LTC Bill DuPont, with the Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve based in the Department of Defense. He spells it out:
“Employers are supposed to provide the same job employees left when they were called up for active duty. If the employee’s position is not available because of reorganization or downsizing, then he or she must receive an equal job offer with similar pay and responsibility.”
According to Sam Right, an ombudsman and legal counsel, also with ESGR, “employers have a legal obligation to take back military veterans, even if it means laying off someone else who was hired to take their place.”
If the veteran suffered a disability in the line of duty, Right says, then the employer must make reasonable accommodations for him to handle the situation. If it is not feasible to return to the same job, Right explains, “then the employer must rehire this person in another position (such as a desk job) with comparable pay and benefits.”
*Learn more about your duties as an employer in “Workplace Policies” in the “HR” category of http://www.NFIB.com/toolsandtips. As Tennessee’s first recipient of the ESGR’s Five-Star Designation for Employers, NFIB encourages members to earn the Five-Star designation themselves.
Learn more at http://www.ESGR.com
