Exceeding USERRA protections
 

Background - My Reserve unit has made me an offer that would be difficult to turn down - 3 year AGR which crosses me over to 20 years Active duty service (and the pension that comes with it) before my 46th birthday. I love the job, near zero threat of a deployment, home every night - it's seriously Lieutenant's work at Lieutenant Colonel's pay.

The problem - I've already used 3 years of Mil Leave with my current employer, AGR tours are 3 years, and USERRA only guarantees you 5 years of protection.

My question - Has anyone been in a similar situation at a major airline or know personally someone who has made this work? I hate to turn down military retirement and all that comes with it when I am so close, but I can't see giving up 7 years of seniority to do it.

5 yrs is the min protection. Ask your employer..most should be fine with 6

Double check that all your service counts as USERRA. Some deployments, etc do not count against that cap legally. Someone who’s smarter on the topic can probably help you out on the specifics.

^^^^^^ THIS!!!!!

It's actually pretty hard to get to five years that counts against the USERRA limits. Although it's more likely in the guard than federal units.

If you break down the deets of your active duty time while at your current employer, I can give you a good analysis.

For starters: drills and regular annual training type duty does not count. Your initial AD training does not count, including seasoning. Any AD required due to an incurred obligation does not count. It's actually possible to get an airline job, leave for a full 20-year career in the regular active duty forces, and come back to your original DOH seniority... would require some creative obligation incurring, but can be done (the first ten years is a freebie for wings obliserv).

Most AD in support of contingencies doesn't count either, so almost anything over-seas or in support of training and readiness for AD units is free.

Prior to the AFG withdrawal, pretty much only duty which was disconnected from operational AD training and readiness would likely count. Examples: war college instructor on three year orders, maybe AGR supporting guard unit admin.

Also as was mentioned, ask your employer what their policy is it, it may be more liberal.

Sending you a PM with a USERRA SME poc

Hopefully an experienced guard/reserve officer.

In my experience (as a CO/XO) the ESGR folks are relatively weak on this stuff, considering that it's their actual job. YMMV.

He's helped a few guys at work, here is his Linked In info incase anyone else could benefit

Michael Peplinski - Program Support Specialist - Amyx, Inc. | LinkedIn

Was trying to keep my description brief so I didn't mention my background, but yes I've already checked this. I had ~3 years with the company where I did regular drill, training periods, annual tours, and a deployment, of which none counted towards the 5 year USERRA limit. I did 3 years as under a voluntary return to Active Duty program - which does count - and if you add in a 3 year AGR tour you get to 6 years of non-exempt leave. It occurred to me to just ask my Chief Pilot what he thinks, but was looking for any protips before I out myself.

If you haven't already I'd double check that one. Lots of potential confusion related to the way orders were written by various agencies but if it was OCO related it probably does not count. Voluntary doesn't always count.

Are you saying that the 10 year commitment incurred from SUPT does not count against the 5 years?

I have been in touch with a Retired JAG officer over at the Reserve Officer Association who specialized in USERRA law. This exact scenario hasn't come up, but from all the his notes and reviews I can't see how an obligation you voluntarily took, like the pilot commitment, would be exempt. If this is true, it's an absolute game changer and I would like to know more.