Reemployment Rights Law

USDL: 97-426
CONTACT: Gordon Berg FOR RELEASE: Immediate
OFFICE: (202) 219-5573 Tuesday, November 25, 1997
Internet Program Explains Veterans Employment, Remployment Law

A new Internet program, designed to inform veterans, reservists and National Guard members about their employment and reemployment rights under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), debuted Nov. 24 when Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman unveiled it as one of six department systems at The American University in Washington, DC.

Known as expert systems, these programs are designed as a series of questions and answers that imitate the interaction a person might have with a human expert to solve a problem. “Expert systems on the Internet will become one of the Labor Department’s primary tools for communicating information about regulatory compliance to the public,” said Herman.

The USERRA program will answer questions about employee eligibility and job entitlements; employer rights and obligations; and benefits and remedies available under the law. This program joins a similar system set up several months ago to explain veterans preference in hiring for federal government jobs. The veterans preference program has been averaging more than 400 “hits” per month.

Both systems can be accessed on the Department of Labor’s Web site at http://www.dol.gov/dol/vets. Links exist to provide easy access to the systems. They also contain direct hyperlinks to more detailed information on other Web sites.

“Providing this important information on the Internet will minimize the disadvantages that may occur when a member of the uniformed services must be absent from his or her place of civilian employment because of military service or required training,” said Assistant Secretary for Veterans’ Employment and Training, Espiridion “Al” Borrego who was on hand to demonstrate the system.

“Because this system answers many of the most often asked questions about USERRA, we expect that the number of without merit investigations will decrease. This will enable VETS to concentrate on cases where violations may have actually occurred,” Borrego said.

Last year, VETS investigated 1,216 formal complaints under USERRA.

Labor Department news releases are accessible on the Internet at: http://www.dol.gov. The information in this news release will be made available to sensory impaired individuals upon request. TDD Message Referral Phone: 1-800-326-2577, Voice phone: (202) 219-7316.