labor lawAdivision of labor law center

If you’re an employer, now is the time to bring your Connecticut USERRA poster up to date. That way, all of the latest information will be on display for your workers. In fact, you’re required to do so. USERRA covers the rights of returning veterans, but even if you have no employees in the military, you must display an up to date poster. It’s the law.

The updated poster would reflect the final USERRA regulations, recently released by the U.S. Department of Labor. USERRA is an acronym for the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994. It applies to members of the National Guard and Reserve as well as returning veterans, and its purpose is not only to protect veterans but also to insure enforcement of the law and insure that the regulations are periodically clarified.

USERRA’s bottom line is that military personnel have the right to be reinstated to their former non-military jobs, provided the time they served their country was a total of 5 years or less. The time is cumulative, meaning it need not have been served in a single stretch. Some veterans – many of those who were wounded in action, for example – are covered even if they have served up to 7 years.

If conditions have changed during the employee’s military absence and new skills are required in the old job, employers must train – or retrain – that employee’s absence to insure that the worker once again qualifies for employment. If that is not possible, reemployment in another position is required by law.

While an employee is away serving in the military, it’s as if that employee is on any other type of leave of absence, whether maternity or disability.

The system is called the “escalator principle.” Imagine a career as an escalator, advancing upward over time. If the employee must get off the “escalator” for a period, that employee is entitled to the same spot on the escalator after military duty is served, as if he or she had never gotten off.

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