Edward M. Kennedy and Max Cleland
The Boston Globe
Back from war, out of a job
(Michael Morgenstern Illustration)
Email|Print| Text size ? + By Edward M. Kennedy and Max Cleland
November 11, 2007
TODAY AMERICANS pay our annual tribute to all those who perform the greatest possible service to country.
In recent years, we have called on our brave men and women to defend us once again. Since Sept. 11, 2001, 1.5 million of the nation's sons and daughters have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and nearly 94,000 members of the National Guard or Reserve are mobilized on active duty. Our forces have now been on duty in Iraq for 4 1/2 years - longer than our military was engaged in World War II. More than 3,800 have made the ultimate sacrifice in Iraq or Afghanistan, and we will honor them for giving what President Lincoln called "the last full measure of devotion."
But all too often, after the parades have ended and the cheers have faded, returning veterans find that resuming life on the home front can be difficult and frustrating. Military service should not make keeping a job, supporting a family or making ends meet harder than before. But some veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are not getting the welcome they deserve.
Data just released by the Department of Defense show that, in many cases, employers aren't keeping faith with our returning troops. In a 2006 survey, 23 percent of returning reservists and National Guard members who could not find a job said that their previous employer refused to rehire them - as required by the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. About 11,000 veterans came home to find that their former employers would not promptly take them back - in direct violation of that 1994 law. Even if they did get their job back, their employers often failed to provide them with full benefits. For example, more than 22,500 reported improper loss of seniority and seniority-related pay and benefits.
Congress enacted the law to ensure that soldiers would not suffer financial hardship because of their military service. The measure entitles returning service members to immediately resume their jobs with full pay and benefits. Congress also gave special attention to disabled veterans, requiring employers to accommodate their needs so that they can do their jobs.
But our laws are only as strong as their enforcement, and recent reports indicate that government agencies charged with enforcing the 1994 act are hamstrung by inefficiency and lack of coordination. Almost half of reservists and National Guardsmen who filed a complaint with the Department of Labor reported being dissatisfied with the handling of their case, and more than one-third reported that the department's response was not prompt. One veteran's case has languished at the Labor Department for seven years.
Almost a third of reservists surveyed in 2006 reported not receiving information on their reemployment rights during activation or deactivation. Obviously, veterans cannot exercise their rights if they don't know those rights exist.
Beyond protection of their rights, returning service members need many other types of support. Some will need job training to meet the new demands of their old jobs. Others will need additional education, networking, and job counseling to find their first civilian positions. Thousands who return with service-related disabilities need assistance to reenter the workforce.
Yet even though Congress made clear that we must pay special attention to disabled veterans, the Government Accountability Office recently reported that agencies have no consistent way of tracking and recording disability-related complaints, because the agencies' computers can't talk to one another.
On Thursday, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee heard testimony on this problem from the heads of government agencies as well as from veterans who have suffered the difficulties of transition firsthand.
The hearing demonstrated that the system for enforcing veterans' reemployment rights still has serious flaws. One veteran described how he got the cold shoulder from the federal government and had to pursue the case on his own; he later won in court. Clearly, government officials must do a better job of eliminating bottlenecks and inefficiencies in the current system, and employers must fully comply with the law.
We must not repeat the tragic mistake of the Vietnam War, when our country, bitterly divided over the war, turned away from many returning veterans who needed help. Speaking to the First Armored Division at Fort Stewart in 1962, President Kennedy read a poem that, according to legend, was found in a sentry box in Gibraltar, and its words have particular resonance here:
God and the soldier, all men adore
In time of danger and not before.
When the danger is passed and all things righted,
God is forgotten and the soldier slighted.We must prove these words wrong by embracing our returning soldiers not just in word, but in deed. These brave men and women stood guard for us, so that we can have a better and safer life - a steady job, a home, and a family. They deserve the same.
Edward M. Kennedy is a US senator from Massachusetts. Max Cleland is a former senator from Georgia.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/11/11/back_from_war_out_of_a_job/
