Reservists losing jobs while on active duty

VFW Magazine, Feb, 2004

Activated National Guardsmen and Reservists are having trouble getting their civilian jobs back when they return home, according to Labor Department statistics.

Between 1998 and 2002, Labor's Office of Special Counsel (OSC), which investigates veterans complaints of job discrimination, handled 55 cases. OSC determined only one merited referral to the Merits System Protection Board and obtained corrective action for two others. But 46 were declined outright. Six are still pending.

Of the 4,690 complaints fielded by Labor's Veterans Employment and Training Service between 2001 and 2004, only 26% received favorable outcomes for veterans. In the last five years, according to Labor statistics, 5,690 veterans have lost jobs in both the private and public sectors after they were activated.

The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 established that veterans returning from active duty are protected from employers discriminating against them because of their military obligations. Of 300,000 currently deployed Guardsmen and Reservists, about 25,000 are expected to return to civilian life in 2005.