Military and New Employee

LindaS

I have a newly hired employee (still within his probationary period) who has decided that he wants to join the Navy. My question relates to the amount of time we are required to give him off for the various tests, etc.

He has just informed me that he needs to take some tests/physicals and also needs to speak to someone regarding obtaining a waiver due to numerous tickets he has, etc. and is requesting two days off work to do this - it just so happens that it is a Thursday and Friday. Am I required to excuse his time off for this? Apparently he cannot do this locally due to having to speak to someone about this waiver.

Can I require that he "make up" his hours missed?

stilldazed

I found the following on the USERRA that may help you out with determining the eligibility of your worker's time off vs. USERRA protection:

"Service in the uniformed services means the performance of duty on a voluntary or involuntary basis in a uniformed service. Service in the uniformed services includes active duty, active and inactive duty for training, National Guard duty under federal statute, and a period for which a person is absent from a position of employment for an examination to determine the fitness of the person to perform duties in the uniformed service. The term also includes a period for which a person is absent from employment to perform funeral honors duty as authorized by law (20 CFR 1002.5(1), 10 USC 12503, or 32 USC 115)."

Depending on how forgiving your organization is, you could probaby include both days; at the least the days of examination would be covered.

As for making up the time, I'm not clear on whether you are referring to your desire to keep his wages intact, remove the absent hours from his record, or something else. To remove the hours from his record should not be required if you count the time as covered by USERRA. To keep his wages intact since he probably has no time off, you can allow him to make up time later, but I would probably not. The time will probably be overtime when he works it later, and requiring overtime if others are not required to work will risk a claim by him of adverse treatment for using USERRA protection. Once his USERRA protection is established, he should not be asked to do anything that other employees would not be asked to do. USERRA does not require you to pay wages for the time he is absent, but the time can't be counted against him. You can ask for documentation, and should expect to get it, if you doubt the reason he has given for his absence. Hopefully, you request the same documentation from others as well. The military, by the way, is probably the most documented work environment. Getting documentation should not be difficult.

best wishes.

TheCol

In my opinion; "no" and "yes". He is not a member of the military and your normal company policy for absence would apply. Send him my advance thanks for his volunteering, in the meantime, you have a business to run.
The Colonel