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Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
For more information call: (202) 219-5573
General Motors Corporation has voluntarily agreed to ensure that its
reserve and National Guard employees serving on active duty or participating in
required training have their military time included when the company calculates
periodic pay increases.
The change in policy came about after the U.S. Department of Labor's
Veterans' Employment and Training Service (VETS) notified GM that one of its
employees believed that the company was not including time when he performed
National Guard duty in its calculations for his progression pay increases.
Under the company's 1996 national collective bargaining agreement with the
United Automobile Workers (UAW), new employees start at 70 percent of the full
pay rate and are given five percent pay increases at the end of every 26 weeks.
Todd Feirer, a general assembler at GM's truck and bus plant in
Janesville, WI, contacted Dan Schmitz, assistant state director for veterans'
employment and training, because his progression increase had been delayed due
to his training with the 440th Logistics Support Squadron based in Milwaukee.
After verifying Feirer's training and employment records, Schmitz informed GM
that the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA)
requires that reservists and National Guard members performing authorized
military service receive all seniority-based employment benefits that they
would have received had they not been away from their jobs.
"General Motors showed good corporate citizenship by cooperating with
our enforcement staff to address Mr. Feirer's problem and promptly moving, with
the UAW, to amend its practices involving all its employees on military leaves
of absence," said Secretary of Labor Alexis M. Herman. "Educational outreach
and good public/private partnerships are the keys to understanding this
important law and ensuring voluntary compliance with it."
When GM learned of the law's requirements, it agreed to make up the
difference in Feirer's pay and credit his military service as time on the job.
In a memorandum to all plant directors of personnel, GM also directed that all
employees absent from work as a result of military leaves of absence or
short-term military duty, regardless of duration, will receive credit for such
time lost when determining eligibility for progression increases upon their
return to work. Until the corporate computer systems are reprogrammed, GM will
manually record and update employee records for military leave time.
VETS investigates employment, reemployment rights, and discrimination
complaints under USERRA. The law covers more than 15 million veterans,
reservists, and National Guard members working in the private and public
sectors.
Archived News Release--Caution:
information may be out of date.
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