Ok I'll try to make this simple, and I don't know if what my employer is doing is against the law, or I just work for a sH&t place. First off, I am a civilian police officer, and I am a reserve drilling regularly. Because I don't have weekends off at my work I have to take them off with no pay during my drill weekends. This is fine. Here is my problem, on Saturday and Sunday Feb 15th and 16th was my drill weekend, Monday the 17th was a holiday (Presidents day), which I worked at my regular job. I should have been paid for my holiday and working that day, (double time) this is company policy, everyone else gets this because this is one of the few holidays we are paid for. However, I did not get paid for the holiday because it is also company policy that you must work before and after the holiday to get the holiday pay. This is to avoid people calling off sick and having extra paid vacations. Because I had to drill, I feel as though I am being punished by not receiving what I am entitled too. Now that I made that very confusing, does anyone know if this is legal or just a bad place to work? If there are laws against this please let me know where to find them. Thanks,
BM3

Just to clarify one thing, they are using my Military drill day like a non-paid sick day, that is why I am not getting paid for the holiday

quote:

Ok I'll try to make this simple, and I don't know if what my employer is doing is against the law, or I just work for a sH&t place. First off, I am a civilian police officer, and I am a reserve drilling regularly. Because I don't have weekends off at my work I have to take them off with no pay during my drill weekends. This is fine. Here is my problem, on Saturday and Sunday Feb 15th and 16th was my drill weekend, Monday the 17th was a holiday (Presidents day), which I worked at my regular job. I should have been paid for my holiday and working that day, (double time) this is company policy, everyone else gets this because this is one of the few holidays we are paid for. However, I did not get paid for the holiday because it is also company policy that you must work before and after the holiday to get the holiday pay. This is to avoid people calling off sick and having extra paid vacations. Because I had to drill, I feel as though I am being punished by not receiving what I am entitled too. Now that I made that very confusing, does anyone know if this is legal or just a bad place to work? If there are laws against this please let me know where to find them. Thanks,

BM3, it's not that I don't want to help you here, but you have a Chain of Command that can call into play people that can REALLY help you with this issue.

Does it sound like you are being treated different because of your status? On here it does. Monday you should contact your COC and see what avenues you have under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Act. http://www.osc.gov/userra.htm CPO Kalbach

BM3 Safeboat-
As you have described it, your employer is applying the regulation as promulgated. Since you were drilling on Sunday (your choice not your employer's), and did not work the day before the Holiday, you did not receive the premium pay to which you've become accustomed. It doesn't seem fair to you but so long as your employer is applying the standard uniformly, you have no case for redress. Now if the standard only required that you work either the day before or day after the Holiday you would have a valid complaint.
Just one of the many sacirifces that we reservists make in order to serve our country. My opinion only.....others should feel free to chime in here.

Welcome to the world of being a Reserve. They are not violating the law. You didn't work as was required. Simple as that.

Ok, let me clarify a little. And thanks for all the responces, they have helped. The contract says "the member must work before and after the holiday OR HAVE AN EXCUSED ABSENSE FROM THERE SUPERVISOR", like a vacation day or comp day, or personal holiday. This is what gets me, is that they are treating me as though I call out sick and have no excuse for not being there. But as i'm understanding its not law. But thanks again for the help.

safe,

Are you taking Comp or Holiday time? With pay, or are you just taking unpaid leave? That's the crux.

In CA, one must be allowed to take Drill time (Military Leave)off, without pay, using Comp/Vacation, can't use sick time. Now, there are some agencies that allow the member to take pay, however the law states that 30 drill time is not paid, however ADT-AT/Schools, are payable under military leave rules, again, that is part of the 30 days. Anything after is an MOU/Union issue.

Sorry about the run-on sentence.

Safe,
I have been through this, the key is, has anyone else in your department received pay for that day if they missed the day before. The key is they can not do it for one, and not you for participating in the reserves.

You should first discuss it with your employer.
if no satisfaction. Talk to your command about issue and guidance.

Another avenue, to see if you have a valid concern, is to call the Ombudsman for the ESGR and discuss your situation, they will explain your rights and options. There number is

1-800-336-4590

Also a suggestion is to check to see if there is a local ESGR ombudsman in your area, good contact to get to know, throughout your reserve career.
website
http://esgr.org/contact.asp

Good luck
Hope this helps.

Safe,

Just talk to your union rep. Have them fight it out. ESGR isn't for this kind of thing, it's for bigger problems. They are allowing you to take time off for drill. The pay issue is not ESGR, it's local/union.

1494...

You passed incorrect advice.

Again, thanks for all of your answers and help, I'm trying to work this out with the department first. Other people are getting the holiday pay with missing the day before or after the holiday provided they were "excused" by there supervisor. I guess my biggest complaint is that because I take an "unpaid" military leave day to drill, they are treating it as an "unexcused" absense, and that just doesn't seem right to me. It's not just the pay that's an issue, its the point behind it. Thanks again for all your comments and the info provided.

As an UPDATE:
Before I recieved any responces on here I found the website for ESGR. I emailed them on Friday and they responded today, this was the responce;

Thank you for contacting ESGR, Employer Support of the Guard and Reserves. Based on the information you provided in your email, It seems your USERRA rights have been violated, had you not been away on drill you would have worked, thus entitling you to receive your benefits. If your company allows supervisors to excuse absence due to personal leave, or vacation leave then you should also be excused. Because in essence, your status when you are away on drill is leave, leave without pay; comparable to FMLA. Below I have attached the particular reference from the Code of Federal Regulations which will best address this issue. You are encouraged to present this information to your employer. If you continue to have resistance from your employer, please contact us via email or by calling directly for further assistance.

Now that I have some information I will attempt to go to my employer about this issue. I don't like to make a big deal out of things and not many things bother me, but this is one of those things that does. I will continue to update on this board in case others run into this situation.

quote:

Originally posted by BTDT:
Welcome to the world of being a Reserve. They are not violating the law. You didn't work as was required. Simple as that.

Hog-wash!
Many businesses are not aware of the correct rules and regulations in regards to the Uniformed Services. Most Employers need to be "educated" on the issues with reserves. Taking a Military Leave (ML) day w/o pay is still considered "time worked."

FYI -

http://www.dol.gov/elaws/userra.htm

I am still curious to see what happens with Safeboat's department. Frankly speaking, USERRA was mainly intended to protect reservists when recalled to 'active duty'. Those protections do not always dovetail with IDT issues.
During my 21 years with the Federal Government there were many times that my employer was neither helpful or sympathetic towards my military service. In fact, "Military Leave" was only used for ADT up until about 5 years ago. And while the Federal Gov't is the largest employer of reservists by far, their treatment of reservists is anything but 'uniform' from agency to agency.
I checked the USERRA website that CoccoC listed and found the following:
"6. Do we have to pay employees on military leave?
No. USERRA only requires unpaid time off. Many employers also allow employees to use any accrued vacation during military leave, although you may not require employees to use vacation."
AND
"Employees returning from military leave are entitled to any benefits determined by seniority that they had when their leave began and also those benefits which would have accrued had they remained continuously employed. Thus, if an employer’s vacation policy is based on seniority, the employer must count the years of military leave as if they were years of actual work to determine how many weeks of vacation the returning veteran would then receive.
However, the employee does not have to be allowed to accrue vacation while on leave, unless other employees on leave are allowed to do so. In addition, employers must treat employees on military leave the same as other employees on a leave of absence with respect to benefits not determined by seniority."

Clear as mud yet? I don't think so. I will wait to see what BM3 Safeboat gets back from his HR/personnel department. I would never bet money on the outcome of something like this since there is way too much 'gray' area.
Keep having fun.

Coco,

Since you're not an LEO, you wouldn't know about how these things work. The agency is NOT required to pay. They are required to allow them to take time off, without pay, as vacation, comp, whatever. It isn't in the provance of USERRA, which is for coming off AD and having problems.

Go wash your hog.

Been dealing with this issue for over 20 years.

quote:

Originally posted by IM_IT:
In fact, "Military Leave" was only used for ADT up until about 5 years ago. :

You can still only use "Military Leave" for ADT.

quote:

Originally posted by duckcop:

quote:

Originally posted by IM_IT:
In fact, "Military Leave" was only used for ADT up until about 5 years ago. :

You can still only use "Military Leave" for ADT.

Not true my friend...Military leave w/o pay can be used for any military duty.

quote:

Originally posted by BTDT:
Coco,

Since you're not an LEO, you wouldn't know about how these things work. The agency is NOT required to pay. They are required to allow them to take time off, without pay, as vacation, comp, whatever. It isn't in the provance of USERRA, which is for coming off AD and having problems.

Go wash your hog.

Been dealing with this issue for over 20 years.

1...Who said I was not an LEO? 2...My POLICE DEPARTMENT has been giving me the same problem. YOU are NOT required to use Vac, Comp, Sick time for ANY military duty. That is not to say that you CANT use it. You can. Federal law is a step up on state law the last I checked.

quote:

Originally posted by CoccoC:

quote:

Originally posted by duckcop:

quote:

Originally posted by IM_IT:
In fact, "Military Leave" was only used for ADT up until about 5 years ago. :

You can still only use "Military Leave" for ADT.

Not true my friend...Military leave w/o pay can be used for any military duty.

True, my friend. I was talking federal gov't, paid military leave.:

2.15 Military Leave.

A. Entitlement. Each member of a Reserve component of the Armed Forces or the National Guard who is an officer or employee of the United States serving under a permanent, term, or temporary indefinite appointment (appointment is for 1 year or longer), is entitled to leave of absence from his/her duties, without loss of pay, for not more than 30 calendar days in any fiscal year, for active duty or active duty training. Military leave is not authorized for periods of inactive duty training (usually weekend drills).

Duck-
This is exactly what I meant when I posted,

quote:

while the Federal Gov't is the largest employer of reservists by far, their treatment of reservists is anything but 'uniform' from agency to agency.

I worked for Treasury and they started allowing folks to use ML for IDT around 2003 or 4. I retired in Jan of '06 but I remember because myself and another reservist who drilled with me got it at the same time. He worked for Smithsonian in DC. Another guy at US Marshals and two at Park Police did not get the same guidance. Of course a lot of what was allowed for my agency was negotiated by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) and may not have extended to other agencies/departments.
Back in 1990, my supervisor tried to fire me for being AWOL while doing my ADT. Thing is..she would have gotten away with it (for a while) if I hadn't walked in her office the day before I left (bringing another copy of my orders) and discovered her writing up the AWOL paperwork. She really hated reservists and thought we all were getting an extra 15 days of paid vacation every AT. Gotta love it!