USERRA
Sue2
110 Posts
Our USERRA policy is administered differently for ordered military leaves and voluntary military leaves. We state that for ORDERED military leaves of less than 31 days, the Company will pay the employee's normal rate of pay but for voluntary military service we will pay DIFFERNTIAL pay for only the first 30 days. I don't think we can legally enforce this. What do you say?
PS We've only had one fulltime employee who qualifies under USERRA and this was not an issue with him.
PS We've only had one fulltime employee who qualifies under USERRA and this was not an issue with him.
Comments
If I were in your shoes, just to avoid confusion and possibly running afoul of the Act, I would treat both categories of active duty identically.
Hopefully someone with some real-world experience in this area will pipe in. We haven't had any employees covered by USERRA since the mid-90s
Good luck.
To anser your question yes you could do a different payroll for the different deployments, but I would not recommend it. I went to Vietnam by assignment the first time; I went to Vietnam the 2nd time as a volunteer. The fact that I was willing to take the place of some other soldier during my 2nd deployment did not make me a differently deserving soldier.
We currently have one soldier out on a military mission relating to the Iraq war zone. He volunteered to be a recruiter for the National Guard. He was to return on the last day of March, 2006. He did not return instead the NG gave him an opportunity to assist in the Camp Shelby, MS training facility. He is not going to be treated any differently than any soldier that was ordered to active duty. I am still waiting on our last soldier to come home, yet her unit has been back since before Christmas. She remains on the payroll and accumalating time and benefits which she will get, if she comes back prior to 91 days after the unit release date. Since I do not have her DD214 I can not take any action to terminate her employment for she might have also volunteered to work at Camp Shelby.
Do ask questions before you leap, this one could jump up and burn real badly.
PORK
>for ordered military leaves and voluntary
>military leaves. We state that for ORDERED
>military leaves of less than 31 days, the
>Company will pay the employee's normal rate of
>pay but for voluntary military service we will
>pay DIFFERNTIAL pay for only the first 30 days.
>I don't think we can legally enforce this. What
>do you say?
>PS We've only had one fulltime employee who
>qualifies under USERRA and this was not an issue
>with him.
You also need to check your state law for guidance. Here in Ohio the ORC states very specifically the options that an employer has for compensating an employee who is called to active duty or who volunteers. We have had several employees go off to war, but it also covers NG duty.