The Department of Labor’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (DOL-VETS) recently released enforcement statistics regarding employment discrimination complaints filed with the agency by military service members under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) in fiscal year (FY) 2015. The statistics are contained in DOL-VETS’ USERRA FY 2015 annual report to Congress.
Notably, the number of complaints filed with DOL-VETS represented the lowest total in a decade. Under USERRA, a covered service member has the option of filing an administrative complaint with DOL-VETS, or going directly to federal court. The 1,123 complaints filed with DOL-VETS in FY 2015 were down slightly from the FY 2014 total of 1,140, and well off the 10-year high of 1,548 complaints filed in FY 2011. These totals represent the number of complaints filed against both private- and public-sector employers, and DOL-VETS no longer provides a breakdown of the number filed against each.
Although we are not aware of any reliable means of tracking the extent of direct-to-court filings, annual federal court statistics compiled by the Administrative Office of United States Courts suggest that the number is very small. Thus we consider the number of complaints filed with DOL-VETS each year to be a good barometer of USERRA discrimination allegations.
DOL-VETS’ USERRA FY 2015 annual report to Congress is available here.
Members of the Equal Employment Advisory Council (EEAC) can read more here.