Most protected class: U.S. Supreme Court finds for military reservist

Among all protected employee classes, employees whose work is interrupted by reserve or active-duty military service enjoy among the highest level of protection of any leave status. California law provides, among other things, 17 days of unpaid leave per year for military training, drills, encampment, naval cruises, special exercises, or similar activities. Employers may not terminate employees or limit their benefits or seniority because they have a temporary disability resulting from that duty. And the federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) protects employees who need time off from their regular jobs for military service.

A recent case deals with yet another statute, which requires a government employer to pay the difference between an employee’s regular pay and that received when called into service during a national emergency. When the government refused to do so, the matter was sent to the U.S. Supreme Court.

How close to the national emergency must the employee be?

The USERRA not only prohibits discrimination against employees who are serving, have served, or are about to serve in the military, but—almost unique in the leave world of protections—it also requires employers to reinstate employees who take up to five years off for military service, with all of the promotions, raises, and other benefits they would have received had they worked through their time off. That is an almost unheard-of leave benefit that is hard to reconcile with the reality of work experience, but it shows the high value the statute places on military service.