Hi everyone,

I am AGR but just around the corner of getting out (1 year). If I put in an application with the regionals and was offered a position, what are the chances that the company would hold the position while I finish up my remaining commitment to the Military? I am assuming that they would want me off active duty before starting but I want to ask and see if something like this is even possible. Has anyone on here ever had any experience with getting hired and holding seniority while still on active duty for their remaining few months?

 

Resign and go part time

 

I may resign but may get sucked into an upcoming deployment , at that point the airline would hold my job.

 

This occurs all the time. AGRs are starting to become revolving doors as of late. You have to request curtailment, get a DOS/approved and make sure you're separated by the time you attend training, or attend it while on terminal leave. Otherwise you have to defer the training dates and let them make the decision as to whether they want to hold their conditional job offer or rescind it. Don't feel bad, there's co-workers of mine biting their nails doing the same waiting games over CJOs at Delta!

Legally, you could separate from the program, attend indoc, and drop long term mil leave on the spot (up to 5 years USERRA protection). But that would be really really really poor form. It's a regional I get it, but even that I think is a bit much.

I don't see the point over curtailing for a regional. A major I get. Unless you're sitting on a non-flying AGR. Good luck to ya.

 

Nope.......

 

I don't know of any airline that actually adds you to the employee list prior to day one of indoc/training. When they "hire" you, it's usually a conditional job offer pending you show up to day one at which point you join the seniority list. By the way, I am AGR and just dropped my retirement papers yesterday with my curtailment worksheet attached. But I'm already on mil leave from an airline so I'm not worried about timing my exit.

 

Employers (including airlines) commonly hire folks on terminal leave (still technically active duty). There's nothing that says you can't have a civilian job while on active duty but it's up to you to de-conflict the two...

1) Military duty has priority (duh).
2) Employer can fire you if you can't show up when you're supposed to (even if the cause is military duty).

But...USERRA only helps folks who had their civilian job BEFORE they went on active duty. In the case of an active-status military member who takes a side job, there are no USERRA protections, you have to try to make everybody happy and if push comes to shove the military has 100% priority.

Like I said, it's common enough for terminal leave. But as was mentioned you do not get on the seniority list until day one of ground school (or in some cases completion of new-hire training). So unless your AGR boss is veeery flexible (to the point of fraud, waste & abuse) or you can take leave the whole time it's probably not going to work out.

And again USERRA would not protect you initially. It would protect you only if/when you left active-status and SUBSEQUENTLY needed to drill or were recalled for MOB/deployment, etc. You'd probably want an air-gap between the two periods of active-status, otherwise an employer would probably consider that you never left AD in the first place (they don't know/care about different types of orders/funding and I don't think USERRA addresses that).

Bottom Line: To get a seniority number you need to start class (or finish training at some airlines). You can do that on active-status if your command lets you take leave. If you want any USERRA protection, you will need to have a period of reserve status either at the the time of hire or prior to utilizing USERRA.

 

This is accurate. While a new-hire at my previous carrier, a classmate was on terminal leave while in class. I remember the day he left class early to go to Scott AFB and get his retiree ID card. He's not there anymore but that is because he moved on to a better position.

 

5 years ago guys would have cut off their left nut to land an AGR job. These days you can't give them away. How times have changed....

 

Same thing could be said in 1998-Sept 2001.

it's cyclical.