This year new laws were passed, offering new protections to those brave men and women who have, or are serving in our military. One such law has added Veteran Status protected classes as covered by the Fair Housing and Employment Act. This law extends all discrimination protections found in the FHEA.
These are 3 signs to watch out for:
- “Sorry, the position is no longer available.”
Sadly, there are too many employers who are unaware, or just do not care about regulations pertaining to returning veterans. The law states, any member of the military who returns veteran home must be offered the option to resume their job upon return from active duty. The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act gives these protections to prevent job loss for serving in the military. The USERRA regulations states that, not only must you be given back your job, but also that you be furnished with all raises, benefits, or promotions you would have received had you never left, provided you were gone for fewer than five years. - If your employer denies you leave time for medical treatment.
If you sustained an injury or illness while serving and your company will not give you time off to get treatment, or threatens your job if you take time off, they are most likely violating the Family and Medical Leave Act. The FMLA endows all veterans with the right to as many as, 26 weeks off from work, split up intermittently or continuous, in order to seek treatment for a serious injury or illness, which was contracted or inflicted while on active duty. You are covered provided the following are true: you must have worked at least 1,250 hours during the 12 month period which preceded the first day of said leave time (there are different guidelines for reservists), the company you work for must have a minimum of 50 employees operating no more than 75 miles from the business; and, you must have been with the company at least 12 months, this includes the leave time and does not have to be consecutive. - If your company strips your accrued vacation time.
There are very clear USERRA mandates protecting employment benefits for all serving in the military. You can NOT lose benefits or be demoted or penalized in any way for serving in the military, reserves or otherwise. All benefits of your employment including but not limited to, any hierarchy, seniority advantage, monetary benefit, incentives, gains, position, account holdings or interests, are all protected under USERRA meaning you cannot be denied any improvement in your employment or benefit you would have earned during the time you were gone on active duty. In addition to the Federal regulation, California state laws mandate that accrued vacation time can never expire or be forfeited. Though it can be capped as a companywide policy.
If you or someone you know is facing discrimination as a result of military service we want to speak with you right away, like most employment matters there is a time limit on how long you have to file your complaint, so don’t wait until it’s too late. Call UELG TODAY for your FREE case review.
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