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No. of employer-employee disputes dropping
State chair David J. Sablan of the Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve’s Guam-CNMI Committee cited the effectiveness of their awareness campaign on the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act or USERRA law, resulting in a decline in the number of cases mediated between employers and service member employees in the region last year.
Compared to an average of 50 cases involving disputes between employers and their service member employees in the past three years, only 20 mediations were recorded in 2011, Sablan said. He also boasted of a 93 percent resolution rate for all disputes.
“I think our education campaign on the USERRA law is working,” he said. “I’m very happy that a lot of employers have become more supportive, more understanding of the service members’ contribution to our way of life.”
Signed into law in October 1994, USERRA protects the re-employment rights of service members and Guard and Reserve components following a period of military service.
Sablan noted that misunderstanding of the law is mostly the reason for the disputes and disagreements they mediate at the ESGR level through the Ombudsman Services Program, which he described as “neutral.”
“We don’t advocate for the service member, we don’t advocate for the employer,” he explained. “We try to look up the facts from both sides then we take the law and see how the law applies, then we give advice.”
Sablan, who served as an ombudsman when starting out at ESGR, said that 7 percent of unresolved cases at their level is referred to the U.S. Department of Labor, which advocates for the service member.
“If they find merit in the case, they will refer it to the U.S. Attorney. This is the ramification of what an employer could face if the Department of Labor gets involved,” he warned.
That is why the ESGR Guam-CNMI Committee regularly holds 45-minute presentations on the USERRA law for employers on both island jurisdictions “because people forget so you got to repeat and repeat every now and then,” according to Sablan.
With a job fair scheduled on July 19, Sablan said they are looking at conducting the USERRA presentation next month.
By Clarissa V. David
Reporter
