For labor day I thought I would talk about how my Employer(s) are and have handled my Deployments in the past and present.
Let me start off with a comment on my current Employer: They are being GREAT!
I have 3 reasons for that. First it is an Union shop; Second i'm in a "southern" state with a pro-military history; Third it is a local government job.
This is not to say that private companies are not as nice. But these are the reasons I would say my current employer is so accommodating.
More after the fold about legal protections and my past experiences.
First off the legal protections for deploying Soldiers. The biggie is the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Act of 1994. This is often confused with the old Soldiers and Sailors Act. The USER in a nutshell says "If you are in the Reserves or National Guard (or any other Reserve System Military like National Public Health and NOAA) and you get activated for Federal Service, your employer has to rehire you when you return."
Not only that but they have to maintain your seniority and provide you with any training you would have gotten while you were gone to maintain your job. You also get any pay increases you would have gotten in that time.
Sounds great. Reality is there are "loopholes" to it. They don't have to put you back in the same job you were in. Think Fred Derry in "The Best Years of Our Lives", he came home after four and half years as a Army Air Force bombardier. He went to the place he was working at on December 7th...as a soda jerk. By law the employer had to offer him back that job or an equal. Well almost five years of combat missions, and going back to soda jerk or janitor is ruff.
More often a person is offered a new position that pays the same, but has no advancement potential. They don't want to replace the person they hired to fill the job you did before, they are worried about your mental state (thanks to all the hype about PTSD), and have found they don't really need you they need someone.
In my past I have had one employer who not only held the job, but even promoted me while I was gone. This was with a small company and the owner was former military. Sadly they were bought out and the new company went bankrupt.
My next employer held my job but did not hire me back due to another "loophole". While I was deployed the company did lay offs. My department saw a 25% cut in staffing. They were pretty clear that I would have been in that group (highly likely). They did offer to let me apply for other positions at a lower pay rate. And my position was gone. Two years after I got back they called me about filling it as they had started refilling those positions...at a lower pay rate of corse. By that point i was being called up again.
Another "loophole" is the 5 year rule. Basically if you get called up for a total of more than five years total, they don't have to hire you back. What is not counted is your Basic Training, mandatory Annual Training, weekend drills and a few other mandatory training events. The Post Office had to be taken to court over this about two years ago when they fired Sergeant Major Rick Erikson. He had deployed a few times, and as a National Guard member had been attending more than the mandatory training. (CSM's tend to do that as they have more responsibilities which equals time) The USPS added up all that time, subtracted some of the mandatory training time and said "you crossed the 5 year rule".
What the case rolled around was he was promoted to CSM and had to attend a training course. The USPS argued that there is an on-line version of this program so he did not have to go to the in person course and that he had volunteered to be promoted. Their view cost them $2 million. (http://www.newsmax.com/... )
My current employer is going to hold my job, and keep my seniority. They are going to work with me when I get back to make sure I am trained back up when I get home (I'm a paramedic in the civilian world but a Combat Engineer in the military - not a lot of cross over).
The USER only applies for Federal Service. This means it applies 100% to the Reserve Soldiers/Sailors, but not to the National Guard when the State calls them up. State laws take over and many are not as, "generous" as the Federal Gov.
Reemployment is not the only "benefit", rather protection, for our Citizen Soldiers. There is the Soldier's and Sailors' Civil Relief Act, now called the Service-members Civil Relief Act. This law was originally passed in 1940 (before WW 2) and was a re-hash of the same law passed in 1914. Prior version have existed as far back as the Civil War.
Basically this law grants protections to deployed Service Members, such as a reduction on the interest they can be charged on credit cards (6%), special steps required to evict family members of deployed Soldiers/Sailors, reduced interest on mortgages (6% also), and delays on civil court actions. (the last is very important!).
You can also have your federal (and many private) student loans put on hold while you deploy. Few private student loan companies won't grant the same treatment the Federal student loans offer, mostly because of the bad karma, I mean, publicity.
The idea is that you should not have to worry about these things while you are fighting. But also should not suffer for your service.
Many Reserve and Guard members will earn less deployed than from their civilian jobs. Getting your credit card interest lowered from 22.9% to 6% is a great thing. In my first call up, I was able to pay off two of my three cards. Later paying off the other and never getting more.
The important one is the civil actions. Less honest people, or processes that started before you were deployed, can involve you in civil actions - liability suits, small claim courts, bankruptcy, divorce, foreclosing actions, etc. In many civil cases, if you don't show up to challenge the process you are declared guilty and lose. Small claim courts are a great example of this.
In 2004 I got sued in small claims court, I got the legal papers two days before the court date by pure luck. One phone call later it was delayed till I could get home at the end of my orders. (I was being sued for stealing butter out of a persons apartment, vandalizing his place, and stalking him to find the video tapes he had of the Mafia ordering me to lock him up. Yeah, nuts but he was asking for several thousand in damages. - see attached image)
If you are found guilty/liable, the person charging you can put a lean on your pay and it will automatically be taken out. You can see how being able to delay the cases till you get home is so valuable. In my case, getting sued over something I could not have done (being way far away at the time), not being able to show up to court to get this tossed out, then found by default guilty, I would have had my pay reduced by $5,000 and not been able to do anything about it.
The divorce delay does annoy many, but again, not being able to argue your side is not fair either.
Over all, my current employer is being great about this. They let me have time off that I would have had to work on days I was not on orders, AND they let me use vacation time I was going to take later to cover those days. When I get home, I won't have lost my seniority, they also will send me to a refresher course at their expense.
The only employer that did better was in 2001, they paid me the difference between what I earned on deployment and what I would have earned working for them. But then that was a smaller company of about 70, we all knew each other well, and it was right after 9/11. (half the company was 12 blocks away from there and everyone knew someone who worked at the WTC complex.)
My current employer is a 250+ strong department of the Louisville-Metro (city/county combined government). As much as the Department head would love to pay the difference, they can't. I won't see much change as I won't have to cover the health insurance so it will be close to break even.
There are many protections you get, but as with all laws there are "loopholes". One employer I knew had shut down while we were deployed. You can't force a company that is closed to hire you back, and if they are doing layoffs in your department,...
Now, not all companies are as nice as the ones i've worked for. One of the Soldiers in my Unit got laid off when he gave them the Mob Orders. I had to call and talk to the owner, Employer Support of Guard and Reserve, and in the end the Department of Labor. My Soldier was the only one laid off at the company, a week later the job was posted in the help wanted section - for lower pay. When the DoL got involved, there was a major fine and the Soldier was hired back. However she is not to keen on going back when she comes home, she is under the spotlight and every little thing is being checked to find reason to write her up.
My Soldier's employer told me he was not going to hire any more Reserve/Guard people because all these rules were too expensive. But he appreciates our service.