Texas Paid Military Leave for Public Officers and Employees

Government Code section 437.202 gives paid military leave to an officer or employee of the State, a municipality, a county or another political subdivision of Texas who is a member of the Texas military forces (the Texas Army and Air National Guard and the Texas State Guard), a reserve component of the armed forces, or a state or federally authorized urban search and rescue team. How much: - up to 15 workdays of paid leave in a fiscal year, on days the person is in authorized training or on duty ordered or authorized by proper authority; - up to 7 more paid workdays in a fiscal year when called to state active duty by the governor or another authority in response to a disaster; - for fire protection personnel, one 24-hour or 48-hour shift counts as a single workday, since the 2025 amendment (H.B. 2513, effective September 1, 2025). During the leave the person may not lose time, efficiency rating, personal time, sick leave or vacation time. State employees only. An officer or employee of the State may carry unused leave under the 15-day allowance forward from one fiscal year to the next, up to 45 workdays. A city, county or other local employer is not required to allow a carry-forward. A member of the Legislature is paid for every day of a session missed for training or duty. Notice. Every public employer has to tell an eligible employee in writing, on hiring (or an officer as soon as practicable after taking office), how many paid workdays the employee is entitled to each fiscal year, and on request give a statement of the days claimed that year. Your job back. An employee of the State or of a local government with at least five full-time employees who is ordered to duty is entitled, when relieved, to be restored to the position held when ordered to duty. Section 437.204 separately protects any employee, public or private, who serves in a state military force from being fired for it, with a complaint to the Texas Workforce Commission's civil rights division; federal USERRA protects reserve and Guard members called to federal service. This is a benefit for serving Guard, State Guard and reserve members who work in government, not for veterans as such. County employee handbooks restate it, sometimes loosely: Smith County's benefits page says "15 calendar days," where the statute says workdays.