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Senate gets earful about reservist job rights

Forty-four percent of National Guard and reserve members who filed formal complaints related to their job rights were dissatisfied with the government’s handling of those complaints, according to Pentagon data released at a Senate hearing Thursday.

And just 23 percent of those who had complaints about their rights sought assistance, according to information released by Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

According to the Defense Department’s 2006 Status of Forces Survey, the 77 percent with problems who did not seek help said they didn’t because it was “not worth the fight” (29 percent), they were “unsure of who to contact or how to file a complaint” (23 percent), they “did not have confidence that seeking assistance would result in a resolution” (14 percent), they had “fear of reprisal from employer” (13 percent), or they cited various other concerns (21 percent).

The survey found that nearly 11,000 reservists were denied prompt re-employment after they demobilized, and more than 22,000 lost seniority and rightful pay, Kennedy noted.

“Even more disturbing, veterans who seek help face a Walter Reed-like nightmare — a system that is crumbling and failing to serve them when they need it most,” Kennedy said.

“They have to negotiate a maze of bureaucracy. They can be shuffled among multiple agencies, only to find after all the bureaucratic runaround that they still may have to pay a lawyer to file their case in court. It’s no wonder 77 percent of all veterans say they don’t even bother to seek help” with re-employment issues, he said.

Kennedy said the Labor Department, which gets most of the claims filed by reservists under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, has taken years in some cases to resolve complaints.

One case has dragged on for seven years — and counting. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said a constituent who worked for the Indian National Health Service had no job after returning from military duty because the agency no longer existed.

When that happens to federal employees, the Office of Personnel Management is required to find them another job. The individual’s complaint has not yet been resolved by the Labor Department. He did find a job — but it’s 90 minutes by plane from his home to his office.

“Very unfortunate,” said Charles Ciccolella, assistant secretary of labor for veterans’ employment and training, noting that most complaints do not result in such problems.

He said this case is likely to be referred to the federal Office of Special Counsel. “I can assure you it’s going to be expedited,” he said.

But U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch said his office began getting e-mails from the service member in Alaska more than six months ago, and Labor was contacted. OSC was told in August that the case would be forwarded within a week, he said. That still has not happened.

Dollar Thrifty’s special efforts

An official from Dollar Thrifty Automotive Group testified about the efforts his company makes for reservists above and beyond the requirements of the USERRA law, such as making up any difference between military pay and company wages, and continuing health care coverage at the same cost during deployments. But workers of some other companies have not been so fortunate.

Retired Marine Reserve Lt. Col. Joseph Steve Duarte said his company fired him in 2003, nearly four months after he returned from Iraq. He got no help from the Defense Department’s office of Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve or the Labor Department, he said. So he hired his own attorney and sued his company at a cost of more than $12,000. The case lasted 13 months, but the company was found to have violated his USERRA rights.

He said the cost to his company, including attorney fees, judgments, and eight months of back pay and benefits to Duarte, and lost productivity for the company, has been estimated at nearly $1 million.

“They chose to ... spend a significant amount of money, hire a large law firm and fight a single military veteran while this country was still at war,” he said.

Former Army Maj. Tammy Duckworth, a wounded veteran who is now director of the Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs, said such job battles can leave veterans teetering on the brink of financial ruin and homelessness.

Illinois provides a $600 state income tax credit to companies for hiring veterans of the 1991 Gulf War and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, she said, and the state helps transitioning service members in other ways, such as having veteran service officers go to veterans’ homes and talk to them about their USERRA rights.

But getting information from the Defense Department about when veterans are returning is difficult, she said. Sometimes, the first time they are in contact is when a homeless shelter calls her office about a veteran or when a veteran runs afoul of the law.