Bill Perkins Quoted in Employment Law360
“Iraq Weighs Heavily On Employers”

Bill Perkins is quoted in the article, “Iraq Weighs Heavily On Employers,” published in the September 17, 2007 issue of Employment Law360. The article discusses the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994, which protects all members of the armed services from job loss, demotion, and loss seniority and benefits while they are on active duty.

In addition to providing job security for returning service women and men, Bill notes that employers must provide COBRA-like benefits to employees while they are on active duty. He observes that some employers have also volunteered to pay the difference between their employee’s former salary and their current salary in the armed forces. Bill points out that, “This call up has created a lot of financial devastation for people who are in the reserves. You’re not paid your regular salary while you’re in the Army, and there can be a pretty significant pay difference. So, some employers have volunteered to make up the difference for up to a year, while others have done it for shorter periods of time.”

When service members return from active duty, Bill observes that, “Under the escalator principle, the employee should be reinstated where he would have been but for the military service. Many times that is a difficult decision, especially in smaller companies. For example, if a company only has one vice president and someone else gets promoted to vice president in the meantime, you can’t have two vice presidents. Many times there isn’t much you can do to prevent those types of litigations.”

Bill notes that Seyfarth Shaw attorneys have litigated at least one USERRA case in each of the firm’s 9 U.S. offices: “Some of these cases involve financial services companies where the employee had a book of business which was redistributed after he left. There are issues where the person believes that they should have received a promotion. These can be pretty daunting cases and employers have a lot on the line to litigate these because it leads to a lot of bad publicity.”