Reservists’ Rocky Return To Job Market. Excerpt:
With the Pentagon relying so heavily on the National Guard and Reserve to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan – 650,000 have been called for active duty since 9/11 – the least you’d expect is that after they serve, they get their old civilian jobs back.There’s a law, called USERRA (Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act), that says their employers have to take them back at the same pay.
But what 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl found is that despite the law, thousands of guards and reservists come home to find themselves demoted or penalized, or out of a job completely.
The Workforce Prof Blog has comments on the video:
A primary focus was on USERRA’s costs to employers given the frequent and long tours of active duty that many Reservists now face in Iraq. There’s the normal share of simply bad employers, but also an example of an employer that continually went beyond the call of duty in supporting its employees who were called up. That employer, while continuing that support, was frank about the growing burdens on losing its employees so frequently and for unknown periods of time. The employer argued that if the military wanted to ensure its personnel enjoyed employment benefits, it should help pay the costs. An interesting idea that would normally seem to be a stretch, but sounds more reasonable given what employers have had to face the last several years.The story also emphasized that these costs to employers hurt military employees’ opportunities. One commentator quoted a senior HR official who said point-blank that he wouldn’t hire an active Reservist. When pointed out that such an action was illegal, the official said that he could also find a reason not to hire someone.