American Legion and VFW groups split on re-employment rights bill

Vets groups split on re-employment rights bill
By Rick Maze
Staff writer
Army Times
Posted : Thursday Jun 21, 2012
A House bill that would expand re-employment rights for veterans has divided the nation’s two largest veterans’ organizations.

The nation’s largest veterans group, the 2.4 million-member American Legion, supports the bill. The nation’s second largest veterans group and the largest for combat veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars, opposes it because the 2.1 million-member group fears it could make it harder for National Guard and reserve members to get hired by large companies.

Sponsored by Rep. John Garamendi, D-Calif., HR 3860 would limit the ability of companies to claim “undue hardship” as the reason for not rehiring a returning veteran.

Testifying Thursday before the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee’s economic opportunity panel, Garamendi said the “undue hardship” rule in current law is “too lenient in allowing employers to dismiss deployed service members.”

“Currently, an employer is excused from re-employing a returning veteran if the employer’s circumstances have changed in a way that it is now impossible or unreasonable to do so, or imposes an undue hardship,” he said.
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