labor lawAdivision of labor law center

Employers need to verify that their poster explaining how the Alabama USERRA operates is up-to-date. Some recent changes will impact workers in Alabama. For instance, a change made recently to USERRA, which is the 1994 Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, makes it so that federal government employees can now file claims with VETS, which is the Veterans’ Employment and Training Service.

USERRA helps to protect the civilian jobs of members of the Navy, Army, and Air Force Reserve and the jobs of veterans. This protection lasts up to 5 years, which is a cumulative total. The way it works is if a soldier serves three years and later serves two more years, his or her 5 year limit is reached.

Now is a great time for every employer to update their Alabama USERRA poster. Additional protection is given by USERRA to disabled veterans. Reasonable job accommodations are required of the employers of disabled veterans. Moreover, if a soldier is injured, even if that injury happens during training, the soldier has two additional years to return to his or her job.

Health care coverage is also addressed by the USERRA regulations. After a military worker has been on duty for over 30 days, he or she can decide to utilize the health care offered by the military. Both the soldier and his or her family can adopt this health coverage.

For up to two years, soldiers instead can keep the health care coverage provided by their civilian employers. In this case, the soldiers are responsible for the full amount of the premium. That means, they have to pay not only their share of the premium, but also the employer’s share. In addition, the soldiers are responsible for any processing fees, so soldiers who take this approach can end up paying 102% of the premium total for their health insurance.

Before soldiers reach the 30 day mark where they qualify for military health care, their civilian employers need to provide health care coverage as if the soldier were still an employee.

Last 10 posts by Amelia

• Colorado Reduces Minimum Wage in 2010 - November 20th, 2009
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• New Definition of Disability - September 25th, 2009
• E-Verify Regulations - September 18th, 2009
• New USERRA Regulations - September 2nd, 2009
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• New Tennessee Workers’ Compensation Law - August 19th, 2009
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