USERRA

Dan McCarthy

We have an employee who has been called into reserve status, I believe, and he is wondering if he can collect unemployment compensation while he is out of work here. Does anyone have an answer to this question?

Down_the_Middle

I believe most states exclude military service (service performed in the employ of the U.S. government, etc....) from being eligible for unemployment compensation, but to be certain you should check your own state statute.

Susan Fentin MA

Dan, in order to be eligible for unemployment, the individual must be available for and actively seeking work. If the employee will be activated to full time reserve status, it would appear that he would not qualify for unemployment benefits. In any event, I recommend that the employee contact the unemployment office directly to find out the answer to his question. Although it's good to be helpful to your workforce, you should not be providing them with advice as to whether or not they would be eligible for benefits, because you do not want to subject the company to any liability for providing misleading information. Good luck.