Veteran Status as a Protected Class in Guam Employment

Public Law 33-064 of August 25, 2015 added "honorably discharged veteran and military status" to the list of protected characteristics in the Guam Employment Relations Act, alongside race, sex including gender identity or expression, age, religion, colour, sexual orientation and ancestry. That places veteran status in ordinary anti-discrimination law rather than in a veterans statute, which is why it is easy to miss and why it reaches further than a veterans provision would. It is an unlawful employment practice for an employer to refuse to hire or employ, to bar or discharge from employment, or otherwise to discriminate against an individual in compensation or in the terms, conditions or privileges of employment because of that status. It is unlawful for an employment agency to fail or refuse to refer or employ, or to classify or otherwise discriminate. It is unlawful for a labour organization to exclude or expel a person from membership or to discriminate against any of its members, employers or employees. And it is unlawful for an employer, labour organization or employment agency to discharge, expel or otherwise discriminate against a person because they opposed a practice forbidden by the chapter. Subsection (c) reaches the paperwork, which is the provision a veteran can actually check without litigating. It is unlawful for an employer or employment agency to print or circulate any statement, advertisement or publication, to use any form of application for employment, or to make any inquiry in connection with prospective employment, that expresses directly or indirectly any limitation, specification or discrimination as to the protected characteristics, unless based on a bona fide occupational qualification. When the veteran category was added, employers and agencies were given six months to modify personnel forms and policies to comply. The definition at subsection (j) is broad. "Veteran and military status" means a person's status on active duty in, or status as a veteran of, the armed forces of the United States; status as a current member or veteran of any reserve component, including the Army Reserve, Marine Corps Reserve, Navy Reserve, Air Force Reserve and Coast Guard Reserve; or status as a current member or veteran of the Guam National Guard. Note the mismatch between the heading and the definition. The protected characteristic is written as "honorably discharged veteran and military status," while the definition at (j) covers current members and veterans without a discharge-character qualifier. If a discharge characterisation is being used against you, that gap is worth raising rather than conceding. USERRA applies in Guam as well, through the definition of State at 38 U.S.C. § 4303(14), which names Guam expressly. USERRA covers reemployment after service, the escalator principle and service-based discrimination, and a veteran with a live problem should look at both routes. Where they overlap, the more protective one governs, and no territorial statute can reduce a federal right.