| OCR Text |
Show Job rights questioned CLEARFIELD As hundreds hun-dreds of thousands of personnel return from Operation Desert Storm, including many from Davis County, job rights and security issues may legitimately come into question. Robert Lowe, Veterans Employment Employ-ment Specialist, Davis County Job Service, explained job security provisions pro-visions outlined under the Veterans Reemployment Rights (VRR) Law. "If a person leaves a civilian job to enter active duty in the Armed Forces, voluntarily or not, he or she is entitled to return to that civilian job after discharge or release from active duty if five basic eligibility criteria of the VRR law are met," he explains. Those criteria are: The job in question must be "other than a temporary' civilian job, although the position need not be permanent. The person must have left the civilian job to go on active duty. Active duty cannot last longer than four years, unless the period beyond four years is 44 at the request and for the convenience of the federal fed-eral government." Discharge or release from active ac-tive duty must be 'under honorable conditions." Application for reemployment with the pre-military service employer must be made within 90 days after separation from active duty. A person meeting the above criteria may be entitled to a better position than the one left behind, Lowe says. A Supreme Court case says, '(The returning veteran) does not step back on the seniority escalator at the point he stepped off. He steps back on it at the precise point he would have occupied had he kept his position continually during dur-ing (his military service).' Known as the "escalator principle,' this was later expressly ratified by Congress. However, the escalator can go down if the employer can establish the veteran would have been downgraded had he remained continuously con-tinuously employed. In addition, if the employer can show the veteran would have been laid off in accordance accor-dance with seniority, the veteran may be entitled to "reinstatement" into the layoff position, with recall rights. This could mean severance pay is all the veteran would receive. "The whole point of the VRR law is to place the returning veteran in the job he would have attained if he had remained continuously employed vs. going into active duty," Lowe emphasizes. This provision pro-vision applies to someone who was drafted, volunteered directly, to reservists re-servists and to members of the National Guard called to active duty voluntarily or involuntarily. The VRR law also provides that a reservist or member of the National Guard "shall upon request be granted a leave of absence by such person's employer for the period required to perform active duty for training or inactive duty training (drills)." The law further provides a reservist or National Guard member "shall not be denied retention in employment or any promotion or other incident or advantage of employment because of any obligation obliga-tion as a member of a Reserve component com-ponent of the Armed Forces." A reservist or National Guard member is required to request a "leave of absence" when military drills or active duty will conflict with civilian working hours. The request is merely a noticethe employer has no right to deny the request or to veto training times, Lowe indicates. Under the law, there is no limit on the frequency or duration of military leaves of absence. It is unlawful to require the use of earned earn-ed vacation time for military training. train-ing. In addition, the employer is not required to pay a reservist for military training. Upon reporting back to work, the reservist must be put back to work immediately. For more information, call Lowe at 773-8380. |
