This handy reference guide gathers web resources for workplace requirements, obligations, and responsibilities to employees in military service in the armed forces of the United States and the United Kingdom.
United States of America: Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA)
Here's an excellent article from the About U.S. Military site from the Department of Labor that summarizes the [llink url=http://usmilitary.about.com/od/justicelawlegislation/a/userra.htm]obligations of U.S. employers[/link] to returning military personnel. Basically, USERRA, signed on October 13, 1994, applies to:"persons who perform duty, voluntarily or involuntarily, in the "uniformed services," which include the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Public Health Service commissioned corps, as well as the reserve components of each of these services. Federal training or service in the Army National Guard and Air National Guard also gives rise to rights under USERRA.
"Uniformed service includes active duty, active duty for training, inactive duty training (such as drills), initial active duty training, and funeral honors duty performed by National Guard and reserve members, as well as the period for which a person is absent from a position of employment for the purpose of an examination to determine fitness to perform any such duty.
"The pre-service employer must reemploy service members returning from a period of service in the uniformed services if those service members meet five criteria:
- The person must have held a civilian job;
- The person must have given notice to the employer that he or she was leaving the job for service in the uniformed services, unless giving notice was precluded by military necessity or otherwise impossible or unreasonable;
- The period of service must not have exceeded five years;
- The person must not have been released from service under dishonorable or other punitive conditions; and
- The person must have reported back to the civilian job in a timely manner or have submitted a timely application for reemployment."
Take a look at the article for additional details.
United Kingdom
Employers in the United Kingdom have obligations and responsibilities to their employees who serve as reservists. This resource from SaBRE - Supporting Britain's Reservists and Employers, an important Ministry of Defense campaign, supplies the information employers need for decisions and accommodation.Additional resources are available from the Ministry of Defense - United Kingdom.
