Takeaway: Employers should exercise care in recognizing employee rights and administering benefits fairly. This is especially true when determining treatment of statutorily protected employees and ensuring they receive the same nonseniority rights and benefits accorded similarly situated employees. In this case, the employers denied paid short-term military leaves of 30 days or less to their military reservists while providing paid nonmilitary leave for jury duty, bereavement and sickness. Simply declaring that military leave is not comparable to nonmilitary leave without examining the length of leave undermines the protections offered to service members under USERRA.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently reversed a district court's ruling in favor of two employer airlines, finding the lower court had erred in concluding that a reasonable jury could not find military leave comparable to nonmilitary leave.
A commercial airline pilot and military reservist claimed that his employers, two commercial airlines, violated provisions of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) by failing to provide him with paid military leave. The pilot filed the class action on behalf of himself and other pilot and military reservists, alleging that the airlines violated USERRA by failing to pay pilots who took short-term military leave while paying pilots who took comparable nonmilitary leave, such as for jury duty and illness. While employed, the...
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