In recent years, federal legislation has updated, clarified and, in some cases, increased the rights of military personnel returning from service to regular employment. Employers are required to promptly re-instate military personnel upon their timely application for re-employment. However, employers are not required to re-employ an individual whose pre-military employment was for a brief, non-recurrent period.
The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) has broad anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation provisions. Employers are prohibited from discrimination with regard to hiring, retention or promotion on the basis of past, present or future military service.
USERRA’s re-employment provisions apply to individuals who have accumulated up to five years of absence from employment because of military service. Service beyond five years is also covered if the extended service is the result of a particularly specialized field of technical military service or in other unique emergency situations.
The amount of time within which the employee must apply for reinstatement to employment is controlled, in part, by the length of...
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