Posted by marykeating on December 16, 2011 under veterans' discrimination | 
Last month Congress unanimously passed and the President signed the Veterans Opportunity to Work (or ”VOW “) to Hire Heroes Act of 2011. It’s a very catchy name, and provides both a carrot and a stick for employers. First, employers get a tax credit for hiring an unemployed veteran. The longer the period of unemployment, the better the tax credit, up to $9,600 for a disabled veteran out of work for more than six months.
Second, the law clarifies that a person’s military status supports a claim of hostile work environment. Hostile work environment based on sex, race, and national origin, among other things, violate the country’s civil rights laws, based on court recognition that a hostile work environment changes the “terms and conditions” of employment.. But recently a federal court refused to recognize a hostile work environment based on veteran or military status. Now military status is clearly entitled to protection from harassment.
With veterans suffering a much higher than normal unemployment rate, this law’s incentives may help returning military personnel reintegrate into civilian life.
Posted by marykeating on November 11, 2011 under Discrimination in employment, Economic situation, veterans' discrimination |
Despite the protection of one of the strongest laws prohibiting discrimination (USERRA), veterans (and current members) of the armed forces experience higher unemployment rates than the rest of the population. The Department of Labor has rolled out a couple of resources that could prove helpful in reintegrating veterans in civilian society.
The first is called “My Next Move for Veterans.” The website asks for the veteran’s military occupation code, and gives some guidance on jobs in the private or public sector that make use of the same skills.
The second is a veteran’s job bank, offering job listings from companies specifically looking for veterans as their next hire.
It is harder to prove discrimination in the failure to hire someone. If a veteran is turned down for a job, he or she is usually not told why, and doesn’t have the inside knowledge to show it was veteran status. Perhaps employers fear that the employees will be recalled to duty, that they came back damaged, that they won’t take direction from a non-military boss. If these resources help veterans find employment, that would help us honor their service.
Posted by marykeating on April 30, 2011 under Economic situation, Government contractors, veterans' discrimination |
This week the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs issued regulations and inviting comments. The rules are intended to improve the rate of hiring of veterans by contractors receiving government funds above a certain threshold. The law already prohibits discrimination against veterans and against people in the military reserves.
Still, it is always difficult to prove that the reason someone was not hired is discriminatory. It’s extra hard when the economy is still weak, and there are many applicants for each opening. The unemployment rate for veterans remains stubbornly high.
A mandatory listing of jobs with several employment services is one way that the Department of Labor expects to improve the employment of veterans by contractors. Veterans languishing at state unemployment offices will get access to job listings that may give them a hiring preference. Even if no preference is given, information about openings is helpful. The contractors are also expected to maintain goals for increasing their veteran hiring rate, and of course must report their progress. Reports would have to include “a statement of reasons explaining the circumstances for rejecting protected veterans for vacancies and training programs.”
These proposals impose additional work on contractors, certainly, but by requiring more focus on finding veterans to apply, and scrutinizing why they were overlooked, the end result should be an increase in hiring.
Posted by marykeating on December 30, 2010 under Economic situation, veterans' discrimination |
Despite protection from one of the strongest anti-discrimination laws (USERRA), veterans find their prospects of reemployment dimmer than the rest of the nation’s jobseekers. According to today’s Washington Post, unemployment rates for returning veterans have been higher than the national average since 2005. One obvious cause is the skills the veterans have acquired while serving in an overseas war. Unlike peacetime military service, the veterans spending time in Iraq or Afghanistan have not been honing computer or mechanical skills. They have been patrolling streets, dismantling bombs, protecting shorelines. Employers may worry about their stability when the government is famous for redeploying its troops with little notice, and the news has been full of veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder that the Veterans Administration downplays, and hence often fails to treat.
On the bright side, some of the unemployment numbers probably come from veterans attending school after their service, so their availability to the job market is limited.
Economists seem hopeful (not that they all can agree on one thing) that the prospects in 2011 are a little rosier. Somehow the recession seems to be receding, but job creation is either not happening, or it’s happening in other countries.
Posted by marykeating on November 11, 2009 under veterans' discrimination |
Veterans have long received mixed welcome upon their return home from service. Many of us remember the Vietnam era veterans’ difficulty in reassimilating, facing as they did receptions ranging from indifference to outright hostility. These days we give more lip service to honoring the sacrifices of this country’s service members. But whether we truly support our troops is open to question when such a large portion of our homeless population consists of veterans, and the medical benefits available for their specific needs is often denied.
One way we can, and must, support veterans is in the workplace. The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA) forbids employers from discriminating against individuals because of their service (or application to serve) in the uniformed armed services. Briefly, the law requires employers to rehire a returning service member into the same job they held, or a job up the ladder that he or she would have held if not for the break in service required by the military. If the service member needs additional training to meet the requirements of the old or the escalated job, the employer has to provide it. In addition, an employer may not refuse to hire or promote someone because of his membership in, for example, the National Guard. The reemployment requirements apply to any service member whose cumulative absences are less than five years, with exceptions.
In addition, returning service members with disabilities must be accommodated, if a reasonable accommodation is available.
The law asks service members to give reasonable notice of their being called to duty, and requires them to return promptly to work if they were gone for no more than 30 days. If they are gone longer, or return disabled, they have more time to notify the employer and claim their old job. If the absence is up to six months, they have two weeks to return; if more than six months, they have 90 days to notify the employer that they are ready to return to their old job.
This law can pose hardships on the employer. First of all, it applies to all employers, regardless of size. So a company of three can be in the position of losing an employee for short or long-term duty, and if the military does not give much warning of deployment, then the employer does not get that warning either. Upon return, the service member is entitled to the old job back; the replacement may need to be fired. Second, with the long-running wars in the middle east, return deployments are common. Sometimes there is very little notice that a person is being called up. Congress has decided that the burden of the uncertainty is going to be shared by the service member and his family, and the employer who will have to deal with the occasional tours of duty.
Employers have to post USERRA rights notices. As with other discrimination statutes, retaliation for exercising rights or standing up for other employees’ rights is actionable.
