BUREAU OF VETERANS' REEMPLOYMENT RIGHTS The Bureau of Veterans' Reemployment Rights is charged with the responsibility of assisting ex-servicemen in connection with their reemployment rights. The reemployment program is designed to reestablish ex-servicemen in their home communities and their former places of employment with no loss of ground because of their absence in military service. The law also protects persons disabled in service who cannot perform the duties of their premilitary jobs, but who are able to perform the duties of another job with their former employer. Reservists and National Guardsmen performing training duty are also protected by the statutes as are persons who leave employment for the purpose of entering the Armed Forces but fail to do so because they are rejected. Industrial Relations Aspects The administration of this law inevitably affects broad areas of industrial relations, ranging from such employment benefits as seniority, vacation pay, and wage progression to issues involving the management practices of business and professions and the collective bargaining agreements between management and labor. The Bureau stresses the amicable settlement of these cases through roundtable discussions with all interested parties. The success of this approach is evident by the relatively few cases which require litigation despite the ex-serviceman's right to free representation in the courts. During the last fiscal year, out of more than 10,000 cases handled by the Bureau in 1959, only 137 were referred to the Department of Justice for possible court action, or about 1 percent. Joint Program of Departments of Defense and Labor In an attempt to reduce the number of disputes and misunderstandings that arise under the laws, the Bureau has developed a joint program with the Department of Defense to provide ex-servicemen an opportunity to inquire into their specific rights at the time of separation from military service. This procedure also alerts the employer in advance as to the release of his employees from military duty, thus enabling him to make necessary personnel adjustments or to seek clarification of his obligations. As a result of improvements in this procedure, the total number of requests for services from the Bureau has increased, but disputes between employee and employer have decreased. This approach has been commended by ex-servicemen and employers alike as an appropriate method of administering the statutes with a minimum of misunderstanding. The procedure has also proved beneficial in minimizing damages liability arising from lack of information as to the obligations of employers under the law, has expedited reinstatement of ex-servicemen, and has cut down on payments of unemployment compensation to which the ex-serviceman might otherwise be entitled. Reservists on Training Duty The Reserve Forces Act of 1955 provides reemployment rights for Ready Reservists who perform from 3- to 6-month periods of active training duty. Section 9(g)(3) of the Universal Military Training and Service Act provides leave of absence rights to reservists performing other types of training duty. These provisions of law have added to the Bureau's total workload. The District Court of the United States in the Northern District of California, Southern Division, in the case of Mariant v. Araujo rendered the first interpretation of a reservist's rights with respect to leave of absence for annual field training. The court upheld the Bureau's position that section 9(g)(3) of the Universal Military Training and Service Act creates a statutory leave of absence and that an employer can neither impose conditions on the leave nor terminate it. The decision holds that the leave is ended when the trainee makes application for reinstatement and is reinstated, and that any action by the employer which denies the trainee a leave of absence or fails to accord him the status of an employee on his application for reinstatement violates the statutes. Suggested Legislation A bill to amend and clarify certain provisions of the Universal Military Training and Service Act, H.R. 5040 and S. 1191, was introduced in the 86th Congress and is now pending in the Senate and House Committees on Armed Services. This amendment would equate the treatment afforded National Guardsmen to that of reservists on training duty, reduce the time period of application for reinstatement after training duty, extend the application period for reservists and members of the National Guard hospitalized after training duty, and clarify the rights of probationary employees. The passage of these amendments will help clarify the law and greatly improve the administration of reemployment rights by the Department of Labor. |