Our Human Resources Blog

Evan Hart is an Army Reservist who fought in Iraq. In January of 2005, he returned from Iraq and was re-employed as a dentist by the Family Dental Group. Three days after he rejoined the practice, he received a letter from his employer stating he would be terminated in 60 days.  Mr. Hart filed a USERRA complaint with the Department of Labor.  As a result of the complaint, the Dental Group was instructed that terminating Mr. Hart in less than 180 days would be in violation of USERRA.  After 180 days he was terminated. 

For those who may not be aware, the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) is a federal statue that grants employment rights to military reservists and active duty members of the armed forces. An employer’s obligations under this Act are often misunderstood.  So  what are the provisions of USERRA? 

Here are the basics… 

• USERRA applies to persons who perform duty, voluntarily or involuntarily, in the “uniformed services,” which include the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Public Health Service commissioned corps, as well as the reserve components of each of these services. 
• USERRA applies to virtually all U.S. employers, regardless of size and covers nearly all employees, including part-time and probationary employees. 
• An employer must not deny initial employment, reemployment, retention in employment, promotion, or any benefit of employment to a person on the basis of a past, present, or future service obligation.  
• An employer must not retaliate against a person because of an action taken to enforce or exercise any USERRA right or for assisting in an USERRA investigation. 

In addition, the pre-service employer must reemploy service members returning from a period of service in the uniformed services if those service members meet five criteria:

• The person must have been absent from a civilian job on account of service in the uniformed services;
• The person must have given advance notice to the employer that he or she was leaving the job for service in the uniformed services, unless such notice was precluded by military necessity or otherwise impossible or unreasonable;
• The cumulative period of military service with that employer must not have exceeded five years;
• The person must not have been released from service under dishonorable or other punitive conditions; and
• The person must have reported back to the civilian job in a timely manner or have submitted a timely application for reemployment, unless timely reporting back or application was impossible or unreasonable.

For more information, please visit USERRA’s website: http://www.dol.gov/compliance/laws/comp-userra.htm