Veteran and Service Member Employment

Employees who are in the uniformed services may be called away to perform their duties voluntarily or involuntarily. Your support for these employees is critical to their ability to perform well, in both their civilian and military positions.

Before an employee leaves to perform military service, including training, active duty, and other responsibilities, they must provide you with advance notice in order to be eligible for reemployment. Federal law doesn’t set a specific timeframe for providing this notice. It can be either written or oral and you can’t specify the form of notice given. There are some exceptions for providing notice, however, such as in the case of military necessity.

You don’t have a “right of refusal” for military leave and cannot take any adverse action against the service member, or threaten to take adverse action, for leaving for service. Similarly, you may be prohibited from taking adverse action against the service member, or threatening to take adverse action, if the service member doesn’t provide notice. However, if your employee’s absence would cause a significant burden, you may contact the commander of your employee’s military unit to ask if the duty could be rescheduled or performed by another service member. If this request isn’t fulfilled, you must still provide unpaid leave so your employee can perform their military duty, and you can’t take any adverse action against the employee.

You can’t require that a service member use vacation time to perform military service, but you must allow them to use any accrued vacation time to perform service. In addition, while your employee is away, the law provides for continuation of health benefits if they have coverage under an employer-provided plan.

It’s in your best interest as an employer to familiarize yourself with the law and contact the U.S. Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) if you have questions.