Military Leave Policy

hrdiva

This is my first time posting or participating in the Forum. It looks like there's a lot of good advice and experiences being shared.

I wonder if you would share with me what your military leave policy is, and more to the point, is any portion of a military leave "paid leave?" I'm in Houston and historically this leave policy (which currently only provides for unpaid leave) has not come into play, but we now have an employee whose Guard unit has been deployed to New Orleans, and we are told it is for a two-week minimum. We might consider amending our policy to begin paying employees the difference between their military pay and their regular salary with us or some other level of compensation (some companies pay according to their STD policy (step-up plan based on years of service with a max)) for some short-term period. Just wondering if any of you have other methods of compensation and/or what lengths of time you might continue to pay an individual during their leave. Since we think it could be a short-term assignment, I'd hate to penalize this individual for particpating in relief efforts in New Orleans.

Thanks for your help.

LarryC

USERRA doesn't require that military leave be paid, but your state might. Here in the Land of 10,000 Paid Leaves, state employees must be paid for military leave.

WT

As far as basic policy, when military personnel get orders, they must be released from work to serve the military. There are two issues here, long term and short term. For short term military leave, you can leave it unpaid, pay wages, permit use of vacation or other accrued leave, or pay the difference between wages and military pay. Remember that assignments as long as a year have become much more common in reserve units so you may want some time limits. Another long term issue is health care. Our company has agreed to carry health care for activated reservists for up to one year. Companies must carry health care for the first 30 days of service and offer continuation coverage at 102%. If the reservist has dependents and use of military Tricare might be a hardship to them (for instance lack of providers accepting Tricare) you may want to consider doing something with your health care coverage. Hope this helps.

Pixie

Our company pays the diference between the employees pay and military pay for 1 year. All benefits remain in force during the leave time.

hhaynal

Our company pays in full the first 15 days of active military leave. After that time, the company will pay loss of earnings for up to 18 months. Health and Dental coverage are continued for up to 18 months and the employee is still required to continue employee contribution.

System

Welcome, hrdiva.
All the other advice is good. We had an employee who was activated and requested the difference in his military pay and his pay here. We looked at his total package, which included $800/mo. housing allowance, and a food allowance. It turned out, because of his rank, that he made more in the military.

One other thing to consider if you do pay is the effect it will have on his retirement contributions, if any. And finally, benefits accrual such as paid time off.

pork1

We would allow the employee to use his vacation and sick time if he/she wanted to be paid by the company while on a two week active duty period.

USERRA would tell you that there is no requirement for the company to do anything more than to protect the person's position and to afford the individual with "continuing status of employment", as if the individual was present for duty with the company.

I hope this helps!

PORK

HRLASS

We pay supplemental pay for six months unless the military pay is higher, as noted in a previous post. We maintain health insurance (and deduct employee portion from supplemental wages) for a year.

mushroomHR

You may want to check the website [url]www.esgr.com[/url]. I have found a lot of good information on military matters there.

MaryHR

We also had an ee in the Guard that was activated for a minimum of 30 days. We are allowing him to use his sick leave. Other ee's have asked if they can donate sick leave to him. We are allowing that.