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Courtesy Andrae Evans
Andrae Evans in Kandahar during humanitarian patrol in 2009.
Members of the National Guard and Reserve sign up to serve our country as needed, and when they return home many expect to find their civilian jobs waiting for them.
Unfortunately, that’s not always the case.
Tim Hack
Adrae Evans with his daughter Ariel, wife Kristin, and son Gabe, before his 4th deployment.
Andrae Evans was an insurance sales manager and a member of the New York Army National Guard in 2004 when he was deployed to Iraq. When he was released from active duty in 2006 his former employer, MassMutual Financial Group, would not reinstate him to the position he left behind.
“I hoped to work things out with MassMutual and believed, wrongly, that they would do the right thing,” said Evans, who's been unable to find work and recently took on a temporary National Guard assignment. He is now in Bagram, Afghanistan, and is suing MassMutual. The company says they were not required to reinstate Evans because he was an independent contractor, not an employee.
In another case, a prosecutor for the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, Andrew Gross, signed up for the U.S. Army Reserve in 2009, and when he returned from a six-month military training program found his job wasn’t waiting for him when he returned.
“I was told I’d have to go to the back of the line to get my job back,” said Gross, who sued the State’s Attorney's office and settled the case late last year.
Mark Cheshire, a spokesman for the state’s attorney’s office, said the new state's attorney inherited the case from his predecessor and moved “to resolve the matter in an equitable fashion" when he took office.
National Guard and Reserve soldiers have faced numerous deployments and calls to duty during the years of war over the past decade, and many have returned to find they no longer had jobs they expected to return to. Some contend they have faced discrimination on their return, or retaliation for their military service.
Such actions are illegal under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, or USERRA, which is supposed to help protect veterans when they return to the workforce.
Complaints brought under the law have escalated in recent years, mirroring the number of guard and reservists returning to their civilian lives.
Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve
Number inquiries from vets regarding USERRA and total number of cases taking on by the government.
According to data from the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, inquiries under the law started to skyrocket in 2010, more than doubling to 34,612, compared with a year earlier. The number of Guard and Reserve members who came off active duty during 2010 also spiked to 91,931 from 48,702 in 2009 before dropping to 45,968 last year, according to the Defense Department.
The number of USERRA complaints also dipped to about 30,000 in 2011, and shows signs of leveling off so far this year. But many veteran advocates expect the problem to continue as the drawdown from Afghanistan proceeds.
“I think as the wars have gone on it has challenged, both spiritually and pragmatically, civilian employers' approach to USERRA,” said Ward Carroll, editor of the Military.com website and blog.
While he’s empathetic to employers who’ve had to function without key employees during their deployments, he stressed the importance of complying with the law.
“It’s part of your duty as an American employer to comply with USERRA and help citizen soldiers,” he said. “Between now and 2014, these challenges to USERRA will continue.”
Steven D. Silverman, the attorney who represented Gross in his suit against the Baltimore City State’s Attorney, said he’s seen a doubling in USERRA claims in his practice over the past year. “I attribute that to the economy and ignorance of the law by employers,” he said.
Indeed, a March survey by Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America found that nearly 40 percent of veterans polled felt their employer didn’t have enough information about their rights under USERRA.
Gross said he doesn’t believe his managers wanted to undermine military service. “I think if they had an understanding of the law this wouldn’t have happened,” he said.
In the case of Evans, who worked for MassMutual, his complaint is that he was not reinstated in the higher position he got before being deployed, said Michael Macomber, an attorney with Tully Rinckey who is representing him. The law, he noted, doesn’t just call for hiring employees back, but also keeping them in a similar position.
MassMutual said in a statement it is “fully complying” with USERRA and will “vigorously defend” its position in court.
A tight job market has exacerbated the problem in recent years, agreed government officials and legal experts. The unemployment rate among veterans who've been on active duty since September 2001 was 12.1 percent in 2011, compared to 8.2 percent overall, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Of course while business conditions may change, most employers want to do the right thing and comply with the law by hiring back returning veterans.
“I believe our employers by an overwhelming vast majority are living up to their responsibilities under USERRA," said Ronald Young, director of family and employer programs and policy in the Pentagon’s Office of Reserve Affairs.
While Young acknowledged some of the uptick in USERRA complaints might have resulted from employers skirting the law, a big chunk had to do with better tracking of cases and more outreach to employers and employees by the government.
His agency recognizes employers that do a good job supporting National Guard and Reserve members by awarding them the Freedom Award. This year Intel Corp. made the list.
Courtesy Mark Miera
Mark Miera
“We have tools in place to help managers fill temporary positions for whatever reason the position is open,” said Lisa Malloy, a spokeswoman for Intel, which employs 100,000, including about 3,000 who have been in the military.
Mark Miera, 43, a National Guard member in New Mexico who’s worked for Intel for 18 years, has had two deployments since 9/11, including a stint in Afghanistan that ended in December.
When he was overseas colleagues messaged him about a position as manager of construction at Intel, and before he came back to work he ended up with a promotion.
“Intel has always moved beyond the requirements of the law,” he said. “They don’t question protecting veterans returning from war and their positions.”
(For more on this issue, join a live web chat Wednesday at noon ET with Randy Plunkett, Military.com's government relations and community director. Click here to join the chat.)
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Leave a Comment:
BUSH and the neocons did not go to war to protect your freedoms, they went to war to protect their own personal interests and they uses you, the people to fight their dirty wars !!
Why would islamics care about your freedoms, why would they ?? they don't live in america, do they ?? It is all part of public brainwashing, people !
Republicans are specialists at brainwashing and they know that you, right wingers supporters are dumb, uneducated, ignorant people.. This is why they cut funding for education, they don't want people that are capable of critical thinking, dummies are so much easier to control and to brainwashed.
The best thing you can do, do not enlist in their wars !
Well of course they're gone, they gave them all away to those foreigners who will work for nothing while getting just enough to skim by in the form of government assistance programs.
HEY RACIST, STOP THE RANTING !!! Those foreigners like you call them are the ones that will pay for your retirement !!! Guess why ??
Your population is aging and there are not enough children to pay for baby bommers retirements, and that will include yours !!! this is why this decision was made because YOU DON'T HAVE A CHOICE if you want social security paid !
Those foreigners were the ones that drained SS to begin with. My god are you an idiot. Anyone who argues along party lines hasn't a clue.
Stop blaming the wrong people !! the current administration did not take these people to war, republicans did and they are the only ones you should blame !! They took your country to an illegal war on LIES !! And you are ready to throw away an administration that did not lie to you and did not take you to wars for personnal interests ?
You and so many like you are truely stupid, you really deserve to get what you got !
You americans have such a short memory span, your intellect is no better !
STOP BLAMING PRESIDENT OBAMA !!! HE IS NOT THE ONE THAT TOOK YOUR COUNTRY TO WAR, REPUBLICANS DID, AND THEY ARE THE ONLY ONE TO BLAME !!!
You are broke because for the past 40 years, paranoid republicans have built an insane industrial military complex that has ruinned your country ! YOU pay for the 1.3 millions military personnel's salaries !!! and that is socialism in its purest !!!
You keep voting for the wrong people, you will never learn because most of you are too stupid and too ignorant !
Republican are using the people to fight their wars for profit and you want to put them in power, again ?? if so, you are truely stupid !
OBAMA 2012 !!!
And what does black have to do with anything, why even bring black up? I'm black and tired of negro's always falling on the color thing, Obama has done a lousy job in my option for America,if you care about black's , unemployment at 23%, highest foreclosure rate in black community and he's allowing 3.2 million criminals to work, Obama and his 101 ways to amnesty has given more illegals pardons than any president.
This crisis is NOT president Obama's fault, he inherited a disater from the republican party !! He is doing the best he can to get your country out of this mess and success is not garantied because the consequances of republican policies are an enormous disaster.
You need people like Obama, democrats are way smarter and have more humanity ! Republicans are scums and do not give a @!$%# about you or your families !!
The problem with you, people you never understand the long term consequances of your politicians decisions. This is the result of bad policies and lies... thousand of your veterans will end up on the street and you are ready to blame president Obama ?? Hey, you should have never voted for republicans in the first place ! What will it take for you to understand ???
Bush and his family bought 100 000 acres of land in Paraguay, guess why ?? Once they ruined the country and once the riots start, they will be long gone, unpunished for their crimes because they made sure that the country they chose has no extradition laws !!!
Please stop posting this nonsense. You act like Obama has something to be proud of in his presidency. He does not. Bush is long gone.... get over it.
Worry about your own country.
I see another arabian "immigrant" has taken hostages in a Toulose bank,why don't you bitch about that on a French blog and leave us to run our own affairs.
It is disheartening to hear about how hard it’s been for our returning soldiers to find gainful employment. CompTIA, an information technology trade association, is trying to do its part to help bridge this gap through Troops to Tech Careers () – a program dedicated to providing our veterans with the education, credentialing and job placement resources needed to start a career in IT. Our veterans have made the ultimate sacrifice by defending our country. We should return the favor by providing them with a solid career path.
It is disheartening to hear about how hard it’s been for our returning soldiers to find gainful employment. CompTIA, an information technology trade association, is trying to do its part to help bridge this gap through Troops to Tech Careers () – a program dedicated to providing our veterans with the education, credentialing and job placement resources needed to start a career in IT. Our veterans have made the ultimate sacrifice by defending our country. We should return the favor by providing them with a solid career path.
I feel for my comrades in arms. I deployed 4 times btwn 2004-2008, I was able to return to my employer with no problems each time. I hope they find another job, somewhere.
It would help if we found out what companies are pushing their noses up at returning vets and give them an earfull instead of bashing each other about political parties.
Mass Mutual is on my list to call and give them h... for treating our vets this way.
It should be illegal to deny a reserve veteran the job he had to leave when called up.
Handing 1 million U.S. jobs to illegal immigrants should totally help the problem...thanks emperor Obama.
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OK, someone remind me...
Who was it who sent hundreds of thousands of troops to fight in two slam dunk wars?
Wouldn't that be the same people who are probably taking the position that whatever companies want to do, regardless of what the law of the land is, especially any laws that are supposed to protect workers - the laws of the land that these troops went to war to preserve and protect, is OK by them.
We need to get the republican party cleaned out of the suckups to billionaires and start getting some people who think that morality is more than a word near the middle of a dictionary.
Clean out the Tea Baggers, Clean out the Right wingers, and let's clean up the mess republicans delivered during 8 years of a coke-fueled spending spree.
Republicans should have known what an incompement GWB was when they voted for him - no sympathy here for people whoi make the same dumb-a$$ mistake twice in a row - shades of the cretins who voted for tricky dick twice except they finall woke up and realize what slime he was...
To these honorable vet's, I say "Welcome to the "New World Order". Come join the other 60% of un-employed America.
Sure, Washington used these fine soldiers as "cannon-fodder", for whatever the real reason, for the Afghan, and Iraqi, invasions were for.
Now, soldiers are seeing just how little their service means, to those in power.
How many vets are out of work? How many civilians are out of work?
Remember, this is NOT the end of World War 2, when Washington bestowed many benefits on returning veterans. No, this isn't your fathers war.
Nowadays, I really wonder if military service means anything, to these in power, and control.
For example: Look at the scandal over Walter Reed Hospital.
No, soldiers are no better than the rest of us. Being un-employed, in uniform, is NO different than being un-employed, OUT of uniform. Veterans must now face what the rest of us have been facing, for nearly three decades.
Chronic un-employment, and empty campaign promises that "Given time, the economy will recover, on its own".
The US Post Office has long been a source of jobs for vets returning from active duty. No more...due the the obvious reasons. I feel for the vets, its gotta be very tough...what do you do when there's nothing?
I, too, return home to the same problem. I have been using the GI Bill to survive. I lost much motivation to still be in the military and look forward to my ETS date. Quite honestly, my unit has not help soldiers get jobs.
They came back to find the jobs are gone? Hell, the people who stayed here saw them leave!
It might help to realize that these are the people you do NOT want to piss off.
.
If you're military, remember that the law REQUIRES your job to be there waiting for you when you return, so it's actually ILLEGAL for your employer to go out of business during your service!
Dirtbag CEOs, board of directors, and senior managers should be sent for a tour of duty!
what should be done as well is for all of us to inform any of the young people that you know to not enlist. tell them do not enlist your country does not take care of you for your service. they do not follow through on their promises to you. i told all my nephews and nieces when i got out and came home to not ever think about enlisting. we need to educate our young to not enlist.
The military makes a point that you are entitled to get your civilain job back when your enlistment contract or deployment is over, but it ain't so. Its just another lie to get you to sign your life away. There is nothing worth dying for in Afghanistan or Iraq. You are exposed to explosions and they take a toll mentally on you and physically as well. Then you go to the VA hospital and find out they deny, deny, deny any claims you have for service connected problems. And who is makijng you dance through hoops? Former veterans? No, the VA people who make these decisons never served a day in any branch of the US Military. The VA hospital staff is a place where you will not find any former veterans employed. They treat you like dirt and like you are a pain. They treat you like you are a welfare case getting free care and free care is no longer given thanks to Reagan and Bush who passed new laws to charge veterans for any health care they receive at a VA hospital. Yes, any medical care requires you to make co-payments which are usually five to ten times higher than any co-payments under private health insurance. When I enlisted I was told and saw in writing that I was entitled to free health care at a VA hospital regardless. It did not say you had to be poor. But Reagan and Bush changed the law. The current americans alive today need only to look at the empty promises made by the US Government to the Native Americans. Not one treaty was ever honored by the US Government. All the land that belonged to this countries native peoples was all stolen . The native peoples were forced onto reservations and the plains native americans food supply (the bison or buffalo) was killed off in an effort to starve the native peoples and make them dependent upon handouts. They effectively made the native americans "beggars".