Policy

St. Norbert College follows the guidelines established by the 1994 Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA). USERRA is a federal law intended to ensure that people who serve, or have served, in the Armed Forces, Reserves, National Guard or other uniformed services are not disadvantaged in their civilian careers because of their service; are promptly reemployed in their civilian jobs upon their return from duty; and are not discriminated against in employment based on past, present or future military service.

Procedures

Requesting Military Leave
When you are called to military service, USERRA requires you to give advance written or verbal notice to your employer, unless such notice is precluded by military necessity. Thus, you should inform your supervisor when notified of an impending call to service as soon as possible, plus provide written documentation.

Duration of Leave
Extended: If you must be absent from work for more than 10 working days, you will be placed on an unpaid military leave of absence for the time period in your military orders.

Temporary: If you must be absent from work for 10 days or less each year in order to participate in temporary military duties, you’re entitled to as many as 10 days of unpaid military leave.

Benefits During Military Leave
When you’re on military leave, you may elect to continue your college health plan coverage. You’ll be required to pay only the employee portion of the insurance premium for the first 30 days or less. After that, you may elect to continue healthcare coverage as provided under the federal government’s COBRA program. If you terminate your healthcare coverage, the college may not impose a benefit reinstatement waiting period once you return to employment.

During your military leave, you may opt to use PTO or vacation time. This is not a requirement. It’s also an exception to our other leave policies, which require employees to exhaust all PTO prior to going onto an unpaid status. You do not accrue PTO while on military leave.

Once you return to the college, St. Norbert will reactivate your benefits based upon the length of service you would have had if you had remained on the job.

Returning to Work After Military Duty
To be eligible for protection under USERRA, you must report back to work or apply for reemployment according to these guidelines:

• If you served fewer than 31 days or were away from the college for other qualified reasons, you must return to work on the next regularly scheduled workday.
• If you served more than 30 days, but fewer than 181 days, you must notify your supervisor of your intention to return to work within 14 days after completing your service.
• If you served more than 180 days, you must notify your supervisor of your intention to return to work within 90 days after completing your service.
• Upon notifying the college of your intention to return to work, you must provide military discharge documentation to your supervisor. This documentation must note the length and character of your military service, plus show your application for reemployment followed the timing guidelines.

Employees returning from military leave will receive all of the seniority and other benefits determined by the seniority they had at the beginning of the military leave, plus any additional seniority and benefits they would have obtained with continuous employment. In addition, time spent on active duty will be counted towards eligibility for Family and Medical Leave (FMLA) once you have returned to work.