Human Resource Blog

Iowa Basics Regarding the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act

We have more and more employees leaving our company to serve in the military. Can you provide us with more information about the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act that might impact those employees and our Iowa company?

Yes. The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) is a federal Act that is in place to protect the jobs and rights of those workers that are enlisted in U.S. military service. The Act applies to companies in states across the U.S., which includes Iowa, but is not limited to just Iowa. USERRA is also an amendment to the Veterans Reemployment Rights Statute (VRR).

According to the Act, covered employees include any workers that are called to active duty or training for any branch of military service, including the Army, Navy, Coast Guard, Reserves, and Marines. Assistance is provided to the veterans of these services by the Veterans Employment and Training Service (VETS), which is a division of the U.S. Department of Labor. All individuals that wish to file a claim under USERRA must file it with VETS.

USERRA provides a host of benefits to those employees that may have performed military service. Here are a few of the basics:

USERRA provides disabled veterans with employment protection by requiring employers to make any reasonable adjustments in order to accommodate a disabled veteran, including additional covered time off from work. For example, USERRA extends the standard amount of time off after military service is performed to up to two years before the employee needs to return to work.

USERRA is in place to establish the amount of time that a military employee may be absent from the civilian job while serving active duty and still retain their reemployment rights. This time period is up to five years (previously, active duty service personnel only had four years.)

Also, thanks to USERAA, if there is a returning military employee, that employee is required to have the same seniority, status, pay rate and other benefits as he or she had when he or she left for active duty. The employee should also be placed in the same or equal position as he or she had when called to active military duty. CB