Reservists’ Rocky Return To Job Market
60 Minutes Report Also Examines Costs Borne By Employers Of Deployed Citizen Soldiers
Coming Home
Citizen soldiers returning from active military duty are entitled by law to get back their old jobs or at least the same salaries, but many are still having trouble. Leslie Stahl reports.
With the Pentagon relying so heavily on the National Guard and Reserve to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan – 650,000 have been called for active duty since 9/11 – the least you’d expect is that after they serve, they get their old civilian jobs back.
There’s a law, called USERRA (Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act), that says their employers have to take them back at the same pay.
But what 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl found is that despite the law, thousands of guards and reservists come home to find themselves demoted or penalized, or out of a job completely.