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USERRA Rights in Alabama

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How does USERRA impact our employees that take military leave in Alabama?

USERRA is the acronym that stands for the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. The Act was put into place by Congress in 1994 in order to replace the former Act known as the Veterans’ Reemployment Rights Act (VRRA). USERRA basically prohibits employers from discriminating against those employees that are involved in active or inactive duty. The Act specifically protects employees during times of hiring, firing, promotions, trainings and protects the rights of employees to receive other benefits.

USERRA works the same way for employees in all states across the country and applies to all employees that are serving or have served in the uniformed services. The Act not only applies to federal employers, but also to employers that have employees in public and private sectors as well.

When the Act refers to employees that serve in the Uniformed Services, those covered service include the Armed Forces, Public Health Service, National Guard, Military, Coast Guard and so forth. The service that is covered under USERRA includes voluntary or involuntary duty, active or inactive duty, training, and full-time duty.

According to USERRA, when an employee leaves the company in order to perform a covered act of service, the employee should expect to return to work at the end of the period of duty and have the same job or an equivalent job. The employee should also have the same benefits, level of seniority and bonus structure that he or she had prior to leaving. The employer is prohibited from firing the employee because the employee leaves for service.

However, there are some requirements that need to be met in order for the employee to have full rights, including the following:

• The employee cannot be discharge from military service dishonorably
• The employee must return to work within the pre-determined time period, which will be determined by the length of service that the employee performs for the military
• The employee must provide advanced notice of the leave, when possible. The notice can be written or oral. CB