Lawmakers Propose Bill to Protect Reservists' Jobs While on Duty

I hope this passes, I have seen too many of my Guard and Reserve peers lose jobs and few employers are held accountable.

As an employer and former service member, I see the challenge from both sides. You should have a job to come home to after serving your country. From the employer perspective, you hire a National Guardsman in good faith and work to arrange a schedule so that they can attend their monthly drill and summer training without impacting your business. The challenge becomes when you have multiple deployments where the member is gone for 1-2 years. Do you hire a replacement and then lay them off when the member returns? Or do you cover the vacant position with overtime and add expense to the company as well as inconvenience to coworkers who may now have to give up days off to cover the member's absence. When you add FMLA to the mix for recurrent treatment for battle injuries, it is sometimes hard to make production. It wasn't so much of a challenge until we involved the National Guard in protracted conflicts. This a resentment I see among employers who want to consider vets but worry about the business impact.....

Every law has a loophole(s) that someone can exploit.