WASHINGTON - Military reservists sent to serve in places like Afghanistan and
Iraq need better protection to keep from losing jobs and benefits back home, lawmakers were told Thursday.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, more than 292,000 National Guard and Reserve forces have been mobilized, officers told a House Veterans' Affairs subcommittee.
"Given the size and unknown conclusion of these activations, the laws that protect the reemployment rights of our nation's citizen-soldiers cannot be overemphasized," said retired Col. Robert Norton of the Military Coalition.
Reservists' jobs are protected by federal law unless re-employment is unreasonable or impossible, and some employers make up the pay difference. The law prohibits employer discrimination against veterans and reservists because of their military service or obligations.
But the law doesn't cover all situations. Michelle Comeau-Dumond, who lives in Aroostook County, Maine, with her two daughters, found that out when her husband, a Maine National Guard member who is serving in Kuwait, lost his paper-mill job when the company laid off more than 100 employees in their area.
"There is no job protection if the employer has a companywide layoff," she said. "When my husband returns home from Kuwait, he will be unemployed. How will he be able to seek employment in northern Maine while is he honorably defending his country and the freedom of others in Iraq?"
The Labor Department said it expects the number of complaints it handles from returning reservists to rise this year.
During fiscal year 2002, the department opened 1,195 cases under the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-Employment Rights Act, said Frederico Juarbe Jr., Labor's assistant secretary for veterans' employment and training. By June 30, it had opened 953 in 2003's first three fiscal quarters, he said.
"If this rate continues through the end of this fiscal year, we will experience a slight increase, about 6 percent" over the yearlong reporting period that ends Sept. 30, 2003, Juarbe said.
Corporations and companies invited to speak to the House subcommittee said they were doing their best to support reservists, but noted that all businesses don't have the funds to support reservists the way the big businesses do.
William Timmerman, chairman and chief executive officer for SCANA Corp., an electricity and gas corporation, said his company keeps reservists on duty at their current pay, minus their military pay, keeps them eligible for all bonuses and allows their pay to count toward retirement.
"There are many businesses which do not have the size and scope of operations to have the requisite flexibility for these kind of policies," Timmerman said. "Some businesses might not have enough financial strength. Some organizations may be in the developmental stage, or so dependent on an individual's talent or entrepreneurial skills that they are limited as to what they could accomplish."
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