North Dakota Military Leave and Reemployment Rights

Section 37-01-25 gives an officer or employee of the state or a political subdivision who is a Guard member, an armed forces reserve member, a person subject to federal call by the President, or a volunteer for federal service, a leave of absence for the period of active service or any military duty, including travel to and from the duty station, without loss of status or efficiency rating. Twenty workdays each calendar year are without loss of pay, provided the individual was in the employ of the state or political subdivision immediately before the leave. Subsection 4 is the part that is usually reported wrongly. A leave of absence necessitated by a full or partial mobilization of the reserve and national guard forces, or by emergency state active duty, "must be without loss of pay for the first thirty days of the absence less any other paid leave of absence which may have been granted during the calendar year in accordance with this section". That is thirty paid days for a mobilization, reduced by whatever part of the twenty has already been taken that year. It is not twenty paid days plus ten unpaid ones. Subsection 5 covers the ordinary drill conflict. Where military duty or travel falls on a scheduled workday, the employee must be given the option of time off with loss of pay, use of the paid leave of absence, or the opportunity to reschedule the work period so the duty or travel happens during time off, without loss of status or efficiency rating. The choice belongs to the employee. Reemployment is in 37-01-25.1 and has three features worth knowing. The window is ninety days after receiving a discharge other than dishonorable, and the person must not be incapacitated for the duties of the former position. They must be given that position or one of like seniority, status and pay. And for one year after returning to the civilian position they are "immune to discharge from said position except for cause, as defined by the department of veterans' affairs". Enforcement runs through the Department of Veterans' Affairs rather than a court. A person not reemployed, or discharged within the year without cause, may appeal to the Department, which may order the appointing power to comply. Where the employer is a state or local body with its own merit or civil service appeal board, that board has the same powers. And the section closes with a criminal provision that most state reemployment statutes do not have: "Any person violating any of the provisions of this section is guilty of an infraction." These are state and local public employment rights. The federal Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act covers private employers and adds its own five-year cumulative service limit, health plan continuation and pension protections; nothing here replaces it.