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Many churches have one or more employees who are absent from work due to active military or National Guard duty. What responsibility does a church have to reemploy such persons when they later seek to return to their job? This issue is addressed by the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 ("USERRA"), which specifies that a person "who is a member of, applies to be a member of, performs, has performed, applies to perform, or has an obligation to perform service in a uniformed service shall not be denied initial employment, reemployment, retention in employment, promotion, or any benefit of employment by an employer" on the basis of his or her military service or application for service. The law applies to all employers, including churches, whether or not they are engaged in interstate commerce and regardless of the number of their employees.
USERRA defines "service ...
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