USERRA’s job protections include:

1. Protection against discrimination & retaliation.

 A servicemember’s miliary service obligation cannot play a part in an employer’s decision to fire, demote, non-promote, or take other actions that affect compensation and benefits. Nor can an employer retaliate against a servicemember who tries to enforce their USERRA rights.

 Since employers will rarely tell reservist/employees that they are being fired because of their military service, USERRA allows a party to establish discrimination by, among other things, examining the closeness in time (shorter being better) between the adverse act (like firing) and the military service (like telling your boss you have military duty), whether the employer followed its internal policies, and whether you were treated differently than other non-military employees.

2. Protection of your pre-deployment job.

 Under USERRA you are supposed to get your pre-deployment job back when you come home. But, in order to ensure this protection, USERRA requires that you (1) be in the military (2) give your employer advance notice of your military obligation, (3) serve less than five years (this requirement has many exceptions to it so even if your service was beyond five years you may likely enjoy USERRA’s protections), (4) receive an honorable discharge, and (5) give your employer timely notice of your intent to come back to your job. If you meet (1) through (5) then your employer should give you your pre-deployment job back i.e., the job you would have occupied had you never deployed. If your employer cannot do this then your employer must find you another job for which you are qualified. If your employer cannot find you another job then it must take reasonable steps to train you so you become qualified. At the end of the day, the job you come back to should have the same seniority, status, and pay as the job you left. USERRA does allow an employer to exempt itself from the re-employment provisions under certain circumstances; however, such circumstances are rare.

3. Protection of your retirement and other work benefits.

​Under USERRA an employer generally must treat you as if you never left the workplace for the purpose of calculating retirement benefits. Additionally, if an employer offers paid short term leave   benefits (such as paid jury duty, paid sick leave, etc.) then it must offer that same benefit to military reservists.