Kansas Private Employer Veterans Preference

Section 73-231 establishes a permissive preference in private employment for veterans. A private employer may adopt an employment policy that gives preference in hiring to a veteran, provided the veteran meets the requirements of the vacant position. Two conditions attach. The policy must be in writing, and it must be applied consistently to all decisions regarding initial employment. That second condition is stricter than it sounds. An employer with a written veterans preference policy cannot apply it to some openings and ignore it for others; the statute conditions the authority on consistency. The veteran establishes eligibility by submitting proof of military service and of an honorable discharge or a general discharge under honorable conditions to the employer. "Veteran" takes its meaning from 73-201, which is the wide definition: active military, naval, air or space service including the groups and individuals listed under 38 C.F.R. 3.7; any Purple Heart recipient; the spouse of a service-connected disabled veteran rated permanently and totally at 100 percent; the surviving spouse of a veteran who died in the line of duty; and the spouse of a prisoner of war. A private employer's policy under this section therefore reaches spouses as well as veterans, which is not obvious from the section itself. What the section does not say is as important as what it does. Unlike several states, Kansas did not write in an express provision declaring that such a preference is not a violation of state equal employment opportunity law. The authority is granted and the shield is implied by the grant rather than stated. And like every permissive preference in this catalog, it creates no right an applicant can enforce. Nothing requires a private employer to adopt a policy, and a veteran passed over by an employer that has one has no remedy under this section. The contrast with 73-201 is stark: in public employment Kansas gives the veteran a district court action, and in private employment it gives the employer an option. For a veteran the practical use is to ask. An employer with a policy under this section has it in writing by law, so the question has a documented answer.