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OPINION OF THE COURT _______________
MATEY, Circuit Judge.
Those who serve in the military must also balance civilian life, including time away from a civilian job. To help servicemembers strike that balance, Congress enacted the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (“USERRA”). Gerard Travers appeals the dismissal of his lawsuit alleging that USERRA requires employers like FedEx to pay reservists for short-term military leave. We conclude the best reading of USERRA directs employers to provide the benefit of compensation when they choose to pay other employees for comparable forms of leave. So we will vacate the contrary order of the District Court.
3

I. BACKGROUND
Travers served in the United States Navy and the Naval Reserve. He also works for FedEx and fulfilled his Reserve duties during leaves from work. Travers received no compensation from FedEx for those absences because the company does not pay employees for military leave. But FedEx does pay employees who miss work for other reasons, like jury duty, illness, and bereavement, to name a few. Relying on USERRA, Travers challenged FedEx’s decision. The District Court dismissed Travers’s complaint, concluding that paid leave was not a “right and benefit” under USERRA. Travers now appeals.1

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A 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel unanimously held that paid leave is a "right and benefit" under the federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), meaning employers must provide it to servicemembers in the same manner as it is granted to other workers.

The court revived a proposed class action brought by FedEx employee and Navy reservist Gerard Travers, who says the company paid workers who took leave for jury duty, bereavement, and health reasons, but denied employees paid leave when they were fulfilling military duties.

Memphis-based FedEx and its lawyers at O'Melveny & Myers did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Nor did Travers' lawyers at Gupta Wessler.

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1 White v. United Airlines, Inc., 987 F.3d 616, 627 (7th Cir. 2021).
2 38 U.S.C. § 4316(b)(1) and 20 C.F.R. § 1002.7(c).
3 While the Seventh Circuit refused rehearing in White, the time has not yet run for a discretionary appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court through a petition for a writ of certiorari.
4Hoefert v. Am. Airlines, Inc., 438 F. Supp. 3d 724, 739 (N.D. Tex. 2020).
5Id.
6Moss v. United Airlines, Inc., 420 F. Supp. 3d 768, 775 (N.D. Ill. 2019).
7 See, Huntsman v. Sw. Airlines Co., No. 19-CV-00083-PJH, 2021 WL 391300, at *7 (N.D. Cal. Feb. 3, 2021), and note that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals declined to entertain Southwest’s appeal from the district court’s class certification decision without opinion on March 10, 2021, in Jayson Huntsman v. Southwest Airlines Co., 21-80010 (stating simply, “[t]he court, in its discretion, denies the petition for permission to appeal the district court’s February 3, 2021 order granting class action certification..”).

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The Seventh Circuit Decision in White

While the Seventh Circuit did not hold that United must pay for military leave, it did reverse the District Court’s dismissal and remand the case for the comparability analysis that it found the District Court had prematurely cut off. The Appellate Court rejected the District Court’s conclusion that providing the United pilots with the same rights and benefits associated with other comparable leave would amount to a de facto mandate to provide paid military leave, noting that “USERRA mandates only equality of treatment; it does not specify how generous or how parsimonious an employer’s paid leave policies must be.” So, for example, an employer that provides no paid leave is not required to provide paid military leave; USERRA only requires employers to provide paid military leave if they provide paid leave in other comparable nonmilitary leave settings.

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