Return from Military Leave - What is Employee's Responsibility?

JRS

We have an employee in the reserves who left one year ago after being called up to active duty. His service time has ended and he is back home. We know we have an obligation to give him his job back, but what is the obligation on his part? That is, how long from the time he returns from active duty does he have to come back to work? We've been in contact with him, but he has not yet committed to return to work.

Thanks.

Down_the_Middle

A reservist who has been gone for 1 yr has ninety (90) days from date of discharge to re-apply at your org. While there are some exceptions to the automatic return of the veteran (e.g. changes in employer business, undue hardship, etc...) your obligation to return the individual is pretty straight forward. USERRA is the federal law that governs this and you might want to peruse it to ensure you're on the right track. Good luck

System

Here's an article on HRhero.com on this topic:

Military leaves of absence and re-employment rights
[url]http://www.hrhero.com/national/tragedy-military.shtml[/url]

Christy Reeder
Website Managing Editor
[url]www.HRhero.com[/url]

JRS

Thank you for your help. After reading the referenced materials, it appears that the burden is on the employee to notify the employer of his return and desire to return to work. In our case, the employee left a phone message with his supervisor stating that he was back, but did not state his intentions. The supervisor called back and left him a message, but as of 10 days ago, we still have not heard from the employee. As far as I'm concerned, the burden is on the employee and we just wait it out until 90 days from the initial call (since we don't know the exact date of his service termination date).

Rockie

You may want to send him a certified letter outlining what you have stated, i.e, you got his message that he was back, you called and left messages for him asking for his intentions to return, etc. This will cover you in case he tries to state that he never received the calls, etc.

The burden is on him to let you know his intentions, but it nevers hurts to have a little backup.

Down_the_Middle

Rockie's absolutely correct. The employee's message that he's BACK has put you on notice that he's looking to discuss re-employment-----assuming he wasn't doing a Schwarzenegger impression!. Confirming everything in writing places the appropriate responsibility on him and enables you to show a paper trail of what transpired.