Sample Military Leave Policy

Below is a sample military leave policy that is based on the rights and requirements of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994.

Protection from Discrimination

You will not be discriminated against in employment, reemployment, retention, promotion or any benefit of employment on the basis of your past or current membership in, or your application for membership in, the uniformed services or your performance or obligation to perform in the uniformed services.

Grant of Leave

You will be granted leave to perform military service (whether voluntary or involuntary) if each of the following conditions are met:

1. The military service is to be performed in a uniformed service. The uniformed services include the following:

the full-time and reserve components of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard;
the National Guard;
the commissioned corps of the Public Health Service; and
any other category of persons designated as a ``uniformed service'' by the President in time of war or
national emergency.

Even if you're not a member of the uniformed services, service as an intermittent disaster response appointee upon activation of the National Disaster Medical System or participation in a training program qualifies for military leave.

2. Written or oral advance notice of the military service is provided to the company by you or an appropriate officer of the branch of the uniformed service in which you will be serving. However, no notice is required if doing so is impossible or unreasonable because of military necessity or other legitimate reasons.

3. The combined length of your previous military absences from the company does not exceed five years, excluding any exempt periods of military service.

The following categories of service are exempt from the five-year service limitation:

Required training for reservists and National Guard members, including two-week annual training sessions and monthly weekend drills.
Service from which a person, due to no fault of the person, is unable to obtain a release before the expiration of the five-year period.
Service required beyond five years to complete an initial period of obligated service.
Active duty service (other than for training) performed because of a national emergency or war, or in support of a critical or operational mission.
Any kind of service other than active duty service if reemployment was initiated before December 12, 1994.

Pay

[The company should designate whether the leave is paid or unpaid. USERRA does not require pay during leave, but some state laws require public employers to do so. Companies often voluntarily pay reservists the difference between their regular wage and the military pay received during annual summer training.]

Benefits During Leave

During military leave, you are entitled to participate in any rights and benefits not based on seniority that are available to employees having similar seniority, status, or pay who are on nonmilitary leaves of absence, including any such rights and benefits that become effective during your leave. You will be required to pay for these rights and benefits only to the same extent that other employees on leave absence would be required to pay.

Health Benefits

You may elect to continue health plan coverage for yourself and your dependents for up to 24 months. If your military service is 30 or fewer days, you will be required to pay the normal employee share of the premium. If your military service is 31 or more days, you will be required to pay no more than 102 percent of the full premium for coverage. Upon reemployment after your military service, no waiting period or exclusion will be imposed on you or your dependents (except with respect to service-connected injuries or illnesses).

Vacation Time

During your military leave, you have the right to use any vacation or similar leave with pay that you accrued prior to military service. It is your personal choice whether to use vacation or similar leave with pay during military service. The company cannot require you to use vacation or similar leave with pay during military service.

Notice of Return

After completing your military service, you must report back to work or apply for reemployment as follows:

Military service of 1 to 30 days absence for fitness examination. You must report for work by the beginning of the first full regularly-scheduled work day that falls eight hours after you return home. If timely reporting is impossible or unreasonable through no fault of your own, you must report to work as soon as possible.
Service of 31 to 180 days. You must submit an application for reemployment no later than 14 days after completion of military service. If submission of a timely application is impossible or unreasonable through no fault of your own, the application must be submitted as soon as possible.
Service of 181 or more days. You must submit an application for employment no later than 90 days after completion of military service.
Service-connected injury or illness. The reporting and application deadlines described above will be extended up to two years if you are hospitalized or convalescing because of a service-connected injury or illness. If timely reporting within the two-year period is impossible or unreasonable due to circumstances beyond your control, the period is extended by the minimum time required to accommodate those circumstances.

Eligibility for Reemployment

You will be eligible for reemployment if: (1) you provided the company with advance written or oral notice of military service, unless giving of notice was impossible or unreasonable due to military necessity or other circumstances; (2) you reported back to work or applied for reemployment on time, as described above; (3) the combined length of your military absences from the company does not exceed five years, excluding any exempt periods of military service (exempt periods of service are noted above under ``Grant of Leave''); and (4) your separation from the service was under honorable conditions.

Reemployment and all rights and benefits associated with reemployment can be denied if:

any one of the above four requirements are not met;
you left employment with the company for reasons unrelated to military service and then subsequently decided to enter the military;
your pre-service position with the company was for a brief, non-recurrent period that was not reasonably expected to continue for a significant length of time;
reasonable efforts to qualify you for Positions 1 and 2 in the reemployment scheme applicable to you (see below) are either unsuccessful or impose an undue hardship, and you are unqualified for any other position at the company;
the company's circumstances have so changed as to make reemployment impossible or unreasonable.

Job Placement Upon Return from Military Service

Except in the case of persons with service-connected disabilities, reinstatement rights are based on the length of a person's military service.

Service of 90 or fewer days. An eligible person returning from military service lasting 90 or fewer days will be promptly reemployed in a job in the following order of priority:

Position 1. The job the person would have held had the person remained continuously employed, so long as the person is qualified for the job or can become qualified after reasonable efforts by the employer to qualify the person.
Position 2. If the person cannot become qualified for Position 1: the person's preservice job, so long as the person is qualified for the job or can become qualified after reasonable efforts by the employer to qualify the person.
Position 3. If the person cannot become qualified for either Position 1 or Position 2: any other job that the person is qualified to perform and that is the next best to the job the person would have held had the person remained continuously employed, or, if there is no such job, that is the next best to the person's pre-service job.

Service of 91 or more days. An eligible person returning from military service lasting 91 or more days will be promptly reemployed in a job in the following order of priority:

Position 1. The job the person would have held had the person remained continuously employed, or a position of equivalent seniority, status, and pay, so long as the person is qualified for the job or can become qualified after reasonable efforts by the employer to qualify the person.
Position 2. If the person cannot become qualified for Position 1: the person's preservice job, or a position of equivalent seniority, status, and pay, so long as the person is qualified for the job or can become qualified after reasonable efforts by the employer to qualify the person.
Position 3. If the person cannot become qualified for either Position 1 or Position 2: any other job that the person is qualified to perform and that is the next best to the job the person would have held had the person remained continuously employed, or, if there is no such job, that is the next best to the person's pre-service job.

Service-connected disability. An eligible person with a disability incurred in or aggravated during military service will be promptly reemployed in a job in the following order of priority:

Position 1. The job the person would have held had the person remained continuously employed, so long as reasonable efforts to accommodate the person's disability can qualify the person to perform this job.
Position 2. If, despite reasonable accommodation efforts, the person is not qualified for Position 1 due to his or her disability, the person must be employed in a position of equivalent seniority, status, and pay, so long as the person is qualified to perform the duties of the position or can become qualified to perform them with reasonable efforts by the employer.
Position 3. If the person does not become qualified for either Position 1 or Position 2, the person must be employed in a position that, consistent with the circumstances of the person's case, most nearly approximates Position 2 in terms of seniority, status, and pay.

Benefits Upon Return from Military Service

Upon reemployment, you will be entitled to all benefits based on seniority that you would have attained had you remained continuously employed. Time in the military plus time prior to military service will be counted in calculating these benefits.

Pension and profit sharing rights. Upon reemployment, your military service will be considered as work with the company for vesting and benefit accrual purposes. The company will fund any resulting obligation. However, you are entitled to accrued benefits from employee contributions only to the extent that you repay the employee contributions. Repayment of employee contributions, if any, can be made over a period that is three times the duration of your military service, but not longer than five years.