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Military leave — Tennessee

The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Act (USERRA) establishes certain rights for employees of private employers who serve in the uniformed services. Specifically, USERRA prohibits private employers from discriminating or retaliating against employees based on their uniformed service, and ensures that those employees receive certain benefits and reemployment rights and limited protection from termination upon return from military leave.

Tennessee also has a military leave statute that offers certain protections to employees who are absent from work due to military leave. The state law protects any private employee who serves in the state militia, the reserve component of the armed forces of the United States or the Tennessee National Guard, or who attends military schools for a limited period of time.

Tennessee also allows private employers to give hiring preference to honorably discharged veterans, spouses of veterans with service-connected disabilities, unremarried widows or widowers of veterans who died of service-connected disabilities, and unremarried widows or widowers of members of the military who died in the line of duty.

This chapter provides a summary of USERRA’s provisions, with references to Tennessee law where it differs from USERRA. 

Employees eligible for...


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