Military Personnel: Additional Actions Needed to Improve
Oversight of Reserve Employment Issues (08-FEB-07, GAO-07-259).
Since September 11, 2001, the Department of Defense (DOD) has
mobilized more than 500,000 reservists. As reservists demobilize,
concerns exist about difficulties with their civilian employment.
Public Law 109-163 required GAO to report on reservists' civilian
employer data and employment matters. GAO assessed (1) the status
of DOD's efforts to capture reservists' employer data; (2) DOD,
Labor, Justice, and Office of Special Counsel processes to track
and address reservists' Uniformed Services Employment and
Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) complaints; and (3) the four
federal agencies' efforts to track reservists' USERRA complaints
related to disabilities incurred while on active duty. GAO
reviewed policies and procedures for reporting and tracking
complaints; DOD's civilian employer database for reservists and
reservists' USERRA complaints; and data reliability and quality
checks.
-------------------------Indexing Terms-------------------------
REPORTNUM: GAO-07-259
ACCNO: A65705
TITLE: Military Personnel: Additional Actions Needed to Improve
Oversight of Reserve Employment Issues
DATE: 02/08/2007
SUBJECT: Armed forces reserves
Employment
Federal aid programs
Interagency relations
Military reserve personnel
Performance appraisal
Persons with disabilities
Policy evaluation
Reporting requirements
Veterans
Veterans employment programs
Policies and procedures
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GAO-07-259
* [1]Results in Brief
* [2]Background
* [3]DOD's Reserve Components
* [4]USERRA Coverage and Protections
* [5]DOD Has Made Progress Capturing Reserve Employment Informati
* [6]DOD Has Made Progress Capturing Employer Information, but Mo
* [7]Some Reserve Employment Data May Not Be Current
* [8]Current Data Verification Process Is Not Adequate for Some C
* [9]Congress and DOD Do Not Have the Comprehensive Information N
* [10]Data in the Department of Labor's Report to Congress Represe
* [11]DOD Lacks Complete Information on All USERRA Complaints
* [12]USERRA Complaints Could Not Be Uniformly Categorized to Reve
* [13]USERRA Coordinating Agencies' Databases Collect
Different Da
* [14]Disabled Reserve Members' USERRA Complaints Are Not Systemat
* [15]Agencies Do Not Use Consistent, Compatible Categories to Tra
* [16]Agencies Do Not Have a System to Distinguish Disability-Rela
* [17]DOD Does Not Have Complete Visibility over Disability-Relate
* [18]Conclusions
* [19]Matter for Congressional Consideration
* [20]Recommendations for Executive Action
* [21]Agencies' Comments and Our Evaluation
* [22]GAO Contact
* [23]Acknowledgments
* [24]GAO's Mission
* [25]Obtaining Copies of GAO Reports and Testimony
* [26]Order by Mail or Phone
* [27]To Report Fraud, Waste, and Abuse in Federal Programs
* [28]Congressional Relations
* [29]Public Affairs
Report to Congressional Committees
United States Government Accountability Office
GAO
February 2007
MILITARY PERSONNEL
Additional Actions Needed to Improve Oversight of Reserve Employment
Issues
GAO-07-259
Contents
Letter 1
Results in Brief 5
Background 9
DOD Has Made Progress Capturing Reserve Employment Information, but
Challenges Remain 15
Congress and DOD Do Not Have the Comprehensive Information Necessary to
Allow for Oversight of Reservists' USERRA Complaints 25
Disabled Reserve Members' USERRA Complaints Are Not Systematically
Recorded or Tracked 32
Conclusions 36
Matter for Congressional Consideration 37
Recommendations for Executive Action 37
Agencies' Comments and Our Evaluation 38
Appendix I Scope and Methodology 43
Appendix II Profiles on Reservists' Civilian Employment 48
Appendix III Profiles on Employers of Reservists 54
Appendix IV Comments from the Department of Defense 68
Appendix V Comments from the Department of Labor 71
Appendix VI Comments from the Office of Special Counsel 73
Appendix VII GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments 74
Tables
Table 1: DOD and Reserve Components' Ready Reserve Strength, August 2006 9
Table 2: Reserve Population and Percent of Compliance Achieved Toward
Civilian Employment Reporting Goals by DOD and the Reserve Components,
August 2006 17
Table 3: Number and Percent of Selected Reservists Reporting Employment by
Small Businesses with Less than 50 Employees by Reserve Component and
Total 23
Table 4: Informal and Formal Complaints Reservists Filed with DOD's
Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, the Veterans' Employment and
Training Service, and the Office of Special Counsel, Fiscal Years 2004 and
2005 27
Table 5: Type of USERRA Disability-Related Complaint Classifications by
Agency 34
Table 6: Reported Civilian Employment Status of Selected Reservists by DOD
and its Reserve Components 48
Table 7: Selected Reservists Reporting Full-Time or Part-Time Civilian
Employment by Employment Sector for DOD and Its Reserve Components 49
Table 8: Number of Selected Reservists Reporting Full-Time or Part-Time
Private Civilian Employment by Employer Size for DOD and Its Reserve
Components 50
Table 9: Number of Selected Reservists in DOD Reporting Self-Employment by
Occupation Code and Description 51
Table 10: Number of Selected Reservists in each Reserve Component
Reporting Self-Employment by Standard Occupation Code and Description 52
Table 11: Reported Employers of Reservists by Employment Sector, for DOD
and Its Reserve Components 54
Table 12: Reported Private Employers of Reservists by Number of Employees
by DOD and Its Reserve Components 55
Table 13: Reported Number of Private Employers of DOD's Reservists by
Two-Digit Standard Industrial Classification Code 55
Table 14: Reported Number of Private Employers of Reservists by Two-Digit
Standard Industrial Classification Code by Reserve Component 58
Table 15: Industries of Reported Small (Less than 50 Employees) Private
Employers of DOD's Reservists, by Two-Digit Standard Industrial
Classification Code 61
Table 16: Reported Number of Private Employers of Reservists by Two-Digit
Standard Industrial Classification Code and Reserve Component 64
Figures
Figure 1: Process to Resolve a USERRA Complaint Using Federal Assistance
12
Figure 2: Number and Percent of Selected Reservists Reporting Work in the
Private Sector by Business Size (Number of Employees) 22
Figure 3: Occupations with the Greatest Amount of 23,871 Self-Employed
Reservists Reporting 24
Abbreviations
GAO Government Accountability Office
DOD Department of Defense
USERRA Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act
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separately.
United States Government Accountability Office
Washington, DC 20548
February 8, 2007
The Honorable Carl Levin
Chairman
The Honorable John McCain
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on Armed Services
United States Senate
The Honorable Ike Skelton
Chairman
The Honorable Duncan Hunter
Ranking Minority Member
Committee on Armed Services
House of Representatives
Since September 11, 2001, the Department of Defense (DOD) has mobilized
more than 500,000 members of the National Guard and Reserves in support of
the Global War on Terrorism. As DOD continues to rely heavily on
reservists,1 and as demobilized reservists eventually return to civilian
life, their civilian employment and the difficulties they face in dealing
with reemployment matters remain areas of interest. In addition, a recent
estimate indicated that one in four reservists returning from Iraq and
Afghanistan has filed for disability benefits. Consequently, reservists
returning from active duty with a disability may be further challenged in
their ability to resume their civilian employment.
DOD's Ready Reserve is comprised of military members of the Reserve and
National Guard, organized in units, or as individuals, liable for recall
to active duty to augment the active component in time of war or national
emergency. Within the Ready Reserve there are three subcategories: the
Selected Reserve, Individual Ready Reserve, and the Inactive National
Guard. The Selected Reserve consists of units and individuals designated
by their respective services and approved by the Chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff as so essential to the initial wartime mission that they
have priority for training, equipment, and personnel over all other
categories of reservists. The Individual Ready Reserve consists of about
260,000 servicemembers who have had training and served previously in the
active component or selected reserve and have some period of their
military service obligation remaining. The Inactive National Guard has
over 1,900 members2 who are Army National Guard personnel who are attached
to a specific National Guard unit. Although they do not participate in
training activities, members of the Inactive National Guard are required
to come together once a year with their unit and would mobilize with their
units if recalled to active duty.
1For the purpose of this report, the terms reserve component and
reservists refer to the collective forces of the Army National Guard, Air
National Guard, Army Reserve, Air Force Reserve, Navy Reserve, Marine
Corps Reserve, and Coast Guard Reserve.
DOD maintains and uses employer information to help manage its reserve
forces. For example, the department considers several factors when
deciding which reservists should be activated, including the civilian
occupations of reservists such as emergency responders--police officers,
firefighters, and medical personnel--necessary to maintain the national
health, safety, and interests. In addition, DOD and the Department of
Labor have a responsibility to inform reservists and their civilian
employers about their rights and responsibilities under the Uniformed
Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) of 1994.3 Among
other things, USERRA requires employers to promptly reemploy those
eligible servicemembers returning from active duty, generally in the same
or like position, and to provide the seniority, rights, benefits, and
promotions they would have received if they had remained continuously
employed. Likewise, USERRA requires reservists to provide their employers
with advance notice prior to departure for military duty. DOD's Employer
Support of the Guard and Reserve organization retains reservists' employer
information to conduct employer outreach, education, and training.
Reservists have both informal and formal options to report their USERRA
complaints. Informal sources include their military chain of command and
DOD's Employer Support ombudsmen services, which are available to provide
informal mediation of USERRA-related issues. Servicemembers may also
contact the Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training
Service to formally report USERRA-related issues.4 At the reservist's
request, the Department of Labor can also transfer the complaint for
possible litigation to the Department of Justice--if the complaint
involves State or local governments and private employers--or to the
Office of Special Counsel--if the complaint involves federal executive
agencies. Under a demonstration project,5 the Office of Special Counsel
now receives some USERRA complaints directly from certain servicemembers.
2Numbers are as of August 2006.
3Pub. L. No. 103-353 (1994), as amended, codified at 38 U.S.C. S4301-4334.
In prior reports, we cited problems with DOD's ability to track civilian
employment data and address reservists' USERRA complaints.6 DOD did not
have sufficient information on employers of reservists and the agencies
addressing reservist complaints did not have the ability to efficiently
and effectively address complaints because the data systems were
incompatible and the processes they used hindered visibility. In response
to the recommendations in these reports, DOD required its reservists to
provide contact information for their civilian employers and status of
their civilian employment. In addition, the four agencies responsible for
addressing USERRA complaints began measures to improve interagency
information exchange and data-sharing capabilities.
The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 20067 required GAO
to report on reservists' civilian employer data and the reemployment
difficulties faced by reservists as a result of active duty service,
including those related to disabilities incurred while activated. For this
report, our objectives were to determine: (1) the status of DOD's efforts
to capture data identifying employers of reservists, (2) the extent to
which agencies track and address USERRA complaints from reservists, and
(3) the extent to which agencies track and address USERRA complaints
related to reservists' disabilities incurred while on active duty.
4Federal agencies use a variety of terms to describe allegations of USERRA
violations, including "complaints," "claims," "matters," and "referrals."
For clarity and consistency throughout this report, we use the term
complaint to describe these allegations. We refer to complaints to DOD as
"informal complaints" and complaints to the Department of Labor,
Department of Justice, and Office of Special Counsel as "formal
complaints."
5Veterans Benefits Improvement Act of 2004, Pub. L. No. 108-454, S 204
(2004).
6GAO, Reserve Forces: DOD Actions Needed to Better Manage Relations
between Reservists and their Employers, [30]GAO-02-608 (Washington, D.C.:
June 13, 2002); and GAO, Military Personnel: Federal Management of
Servicemember Employment Rights Can Be Further Improved, [31]GAO-06-60
(Washington, D.C.: October 2005).
7Pub. L. No. 109-163, S517 (2006).
To accomplish these objectives, we reviewed agency policies, procedures,
and processes for reserve employment reporting and for tracking and
addressing USERRA complaints including the informal complaints filed with
DOD's Employer Support and the formal complaints filed with the Department
of Labor's Veteran's Employment and Training Service and the Office of
Special Counsel.8 We obtained and analyzed employer data for the Ready
Reserve from DOD's civilian employment information database as of August
2006 and DOD's reserve disabled totals from fiscal years 2003 through
2006. In addition, we obtained information on the over 16,000 total USERRA
informal complaints filed with DOD's Employer Support, and the formal
complaints filed with the Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and
Training Service, and the Office of Special Counsel for fiscal years 2004
through 2006, including any identified as related to disabilities. We
interviewed officials from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of
Defense for Reserve Affairs and the Reserve Components about civilian
employer reporting; and we talked to representatives from DOD's Employer
Support of the Guard and Reserve (including ombudsmen, who are civilian
volunteers throughout the country who assist reservists in resolving
employment disputes), the Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and
Training Service, the Department of Justice, and the Office of Special
Counsel about reservist USERRA complaints. In addition, we visited Army
National Guard, Army Reserve, Air Force Reserve, and Marine Corps Reserve
units that were previously activated and held group discussions with over
100 officers and enlisted personnel about their knowledge of USERRA and
the rights it provides them, reporting of employment information, and any
USERRA issues they may have experienced as a result of their activation.
We also discussed reservist-related USERRA and disability issues with
several military relief, veterans, and reserve organizations. Finally, we
reviewed the reliability of data that we used from the four agencies. 9
Our work was performed from April 2006 to December 2006 in accordance with
generally accepted government auditing standards. Additional information
on our scope and methodology is presented in appendix I.
8The Attorney General is assigned enforcement responsibilities under
USERRA, but the Department of Justice is not authorized to receive USERRA
complaints directly from servicemembers. It may represent individuals
involving private sector or State or local government complaints that are
referred from the Department of Labor.
9Reliability refers to the accuracy and completeness of computer-processed
data. We conducted a mix of electronic testing and reviews of data quality
controls the agencies have in place. We found the data we used from three
of the data sources to be sufficiently reliable for the purposes of this
engagement. However, an ongoing review within our agency continues to
assess the Department of Labor's USERRA data. We found two of the data
sources to be of undeterminable reliability for the purpose of this
engagement.
Results in Brief
DOD has made progress capturing employment information on its reservists
since August 2005, but several challenges remain. In August 2004, DOD
changed employer reporting by reservists from voluntary to mandatory. The
number of reservists reporting employer information to DOD increased from
60 percent in August 2005 to about 77 percent in August 2006. However, we
found that reservists have not fully reported civilian employment
information, reported employment data are not necessarily current, and
DOD's employer verification process is not adequate. Complete and current
civilian employer information is important to DOD for several reasons,
including its ability to provide sufficient outreach to employers. In
August 2004, DOD established a 95 percent goal for reporting employment
information for the Selected Reserve and a 75 percent reporting goal for
the Individual Ready Reserve and Inactive National Guard. As of August
2006, about 91 percent of Selected Reserve members had reported this
information, whereas only 30 percent of Individual Ready Reserve or
Inactive National Guard Members with good addresses had complied.
Currently, the Army Reserve has met the Selected Reserve reporting goal
and the Army National Guard has met the Inactive National Guard reporting
goal and nearly met the Selected Reserve goal, while the other reserve
components have met neither goal. Moreover, DOD does not have specific
time frames for when reserve components are to achieve their reporting
goals, and has not directed the service components to take actions to
assure compliance. In addition, the DOD instruction10 requires reservists
to update their employment information when changes occur; however, during
focus groups we found that reservists generally were not aware of the need
to update employer information when employers changed. As such, some
employer information in DOD's database may not be current because the
services have not established a formal mechanism to remind reservists to
review their personnel information and update it as necessary to reflect
changes in their current employment. Lastly, DOD relies on Dun and
Bradstreet to verify the accuracy of the employer data provided by
reservists and to provide DOD with additional employer business
characteristics. However, DOD has not been able to determine the accuracy
of all of its reported employer information, including small businesses
that employ less than 50 people. For example, of the 453,596 reservists
reporting civilian employer information, DOD was unable to verify employer
information for approximately 24 percent, or 108,125 reservists reporting
employment. DOD acknowledges that its process for verifying employment
data has been particularly difficult for small business and is working to
identify alternative sources for this information. Without better
information for these employers of reservists, DOD may be limited in its
efforts to provide outreach to employers. We are making a number of
recommendations to the Secretary of Defense to improve the reporting of
reserve employment information, and to encourage reservists to keep their
employer data current.
10DODI 7730.54, enclosure 10 (Aug. 6, 2004).
The four federal agencies responsible for assisting reservists with USERRA
complaints--DOD's Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, the
Department of Labor, the Department of Justice, and the Office of Special
Counsel--track and address these complaints; however, Congress does not
have the comprehensive information necessary to allow for complete
oversight of all reservists' USERRA complaints. For example, the Secretary
of Labor is required by law to provide an annual report to Congress that
includes information on the number of cases it reviewed, the nature and
status of each case reported, as well as the number of cases referred to
the Attorney General or Office of Special Counsel.11 The Department of
Labor and the Office of Special Counsel, for fiscal years 2004 and 2005,
tracked and addressed 2,446 formal USERRA complaints, which were reported
to Congress. However, the Secretary's report to Congress for fiscal years
2004 and 200512 was not required to include 9,975 informal USERRA
complaints that were tracked and addressed by DOD's Employer Support of
the Guard and Reserve. Additionally, DOD's Employer Support of the Guard
and Reserve organization lacks complete information on all reserve USERRA
complaints filed because the Department of Labor does not provide DOD with
aggregate USERRA complaint data by complaint type. Although DOD's Employer
Support is able to produce aggregate reports on complaints that originate
within the agency, it is not able to produce aggregate reports for cases
that begin with the Department of Labor. According to the Standards for
Internal Control,13 management should ensure that there are adequate means
of communicating with, and obtaining information from, others who may have
a significant impact on the agency's ability to achieve its goals.
Finally, we obtained information on the over 16,000 total informal and
formal USERRA complaints filed by reservists between fiscal years 2004 and
2006.14 These data showed that the nature of those complaints has not been
uniformly categorized to completely reveal trends in the types of problems
that some returning reservists experience--such as being refused job
reinstatement, denied an appropriate pay rate, or being denied vacation
time--because the four agencies involved use different complaint
categories to characterize USERRA complaints. In line with the Standards
for Internal Control in the Federal Government, it is essential that
different sets of related data be compared and assessed so that analyses
of the relationships can be made and corrective actions taken, if needed.
Current reporting practices limit congressional oversight of reserve
USERRA complaints and DOD's awareness of complaints filed with other
agencies and the nature of these issues. To gain a full perspective on the
number and nature of USERRA complaints filed by reservists upon returning
from active duty, Congress should consider amending 38 U.S.C. S4332 to
require the Department of Labor to include data from DOD's Employer
Support of the Guard and Reserve in its annual report to Congress. We are
also recommending that the Secretary of Labor provide aggregate USERRA
complaint data to DOD's Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, and we
are recommending that the Secretary of Labor and Secretary of Defense
adopt uniform complaint categories in the future that will allow aggregate
trend analysis to be performed across their agencies' databases.
1138 U.S.C. S 4332.
12The Department of Labor's USERRA Annual Report to Congress includes
information on all reemployment complaints reported to the Department of
Labor, which include complaints from all persons protected under USERRA.
At the time we performed our analysis, the Department of Labor had not
provided its fiscal year 2006 report to Congress. The fiscal year 2006
report to Congress is not due until February 2007.
Agencies responsible for addressing reservists' USERRA issues cannot
systematically record and track disability-related employment complaints
because they do not use consistent and compatible complaint categories for
tracking purposes and they do not have a system in place for
distinguishing disability-related complaints from other types of
complaints. Our analysis of DOD's Employer Support of the Guard and
Reserve and the Veterans' Employment and Training Service data indicated
that about 200 reservists' USERRA complaints filed and addressed in fiscal
years 2004 to 2006 were identified as disability-related. We believe,
however, that the number of disability-related complaints may be
understated because the agencies may have recorded disability-related
complaints in categories other than the specific categories we analyzed.
Without systematic tracking of disabled reservists' complaints to provide
visibility over this group, DOD may not be fully aware of (1) the effect
disabilities received by reservists while on active duty had on
reemployment if the reservists filed formal complaints directly with the
Department of Labor and (2) what additional assistance may be needed to
help transition this population back into the workforce. In order for
agencies to have more complete information regarding the numbers and types
of disability-related USERRA complaints from disabled reservists, we are
recommending that the Secretary of Labor develop a system for recording
and tracking these types of complaints and share it with the other
agencies responsible for addressing USERRA complaints.
13GAO, Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government,
[32]GAO/AIMD-00-21 .3.1 (Washington, D.C.: Nov. 9, 1999).
14This total includes informal complaints filed by reservists with DOD's
Employer Support between fiscal years 2004 and 2006, and the formal
complaints reported by the Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and
Training Service in its fiscal year 2004 and 2005 reports to Congress. The
fiscal year 2006 report was not available within the time frames of our
review.
In written comments on a draft of this report, DOD and the Department of
Labor generally concurred with our findings and recommendations that were
directly applicable to their respective agencies. The Office of Special
Counsel also provided written comments indicating that it concurred with
our recommendations and found the report to be comprehensive and accurate
as it related to the responsibilities of the Office of Special Counsel.
Also, the Department of Labor and the Office of Special Counsel concurred
with our matter for congressional consideration that Congress should
consider amending 38 U.S.C. S4332 to require the Department of Labor to
include complaint data from DOD's Employer Support of the Guard and
Reserve in its annual report to Congress. The Department of Justice
reviewed a draft of this report and had no comments. The other agencies'
comments and our evaluation of them are discussed later in this report.
Background
DOD's Reserve Components
The purpose of the reserve components is to provide trained units and
qualified persons available for active duty in the armed forces in time of
war or national emergency or as otherwise required for national
security.15 Since the end of the Cold War, the nation has relied more
heavily on the reserves as an integrated part of the military services. As
of August 2006, reserve components comprised about 1.1 million members or
44 percent of the nation's total military force. Reserve units are
primarily filled by members of the Selected Reserve, who are authorized
training consisting of regularly scheduled unit training period in an
Inactive Duty Status (48 periods a year). Reservists can also volunteer to
serve on active duty or be involuntarily mobilized to active duty.
The strength numbers for DOD's Ready Reserves as of August 2006 by reserve
component are shown in table 1 below.
Table 1: DOD and Reserve Components' Ready Reserve Strength, August 2006
Reserve component Strength numbers
Army National Guard 345,207
Army Reserve 285,611
Navy Reserve 131,739
Marine Corps Reserve 100,678
Air National Guard 105,517
Air Force Reserve 118,472
Coast Guard Reserve 12,659
DOD total 1,099,883
Source: DOD summary strength report.
USERRA Coverage and Protections
In 1994, Congress passed USERRA to "encourage non-career service in the
uniformed services by eliminating or minimizing the disadvantages to
civilian careers and employment which can result from such service."16 The
act protects millions of individuals17 as they transition between their
federal duties and their civilian employment. Prior to USERRA,
reemployment rights were set forth in the Vietnam Era Veteran's
Readjustment Act of 1974.18 Congress reviewed the effectiveness of the
1974 act after receiving a number of questions and complaints about
reemployment rights from military servicemembers and employers following
the 1991 Gulf War.19 USERRA covers not only those individuals who have
served in the reserve components, but also large numbers of active duty
servicemembers and veterans, including those who served prior to the
passage of the act. Servicemembers retain reemployment rights under USERRA
as long as they meet a few basic requirements. Among the eligibility
requirements are (1) the absence of the receipt of a dishonorable or other
disqualifying discharge, (2) giving proper notice prior to departure, and
(3) returning to work or applying for reemployment in a timely manner
after conclusion of service. Provided servicemembers meet their USERRA
requirements, they are entitled to
1510 U.S.C. S10102.
1638 U.S.C. S4301.
o prompt reinstatement to the position they would have held if
they had never left their employment, or to positions of like
seniority, status, and pay;
o health coverage for a designated period of time while absent
from their
employers and immediate reinstatement of health coverage upon
return;
o training, as needed, to requalify for their jobs;
o periods of protection against discharge based on the length of
service; and
o nonseniority benefits that are available to other employees with
similar seniority, status, and pay who are on leaves of absence.
17In addition to military servicemembers and veterans, the act covers the
commissioned corps of the Public Health Service and other persons
designated by the President in time of war or national emergency.
18Pub. L. No. 93-508 (1974).
19According to DOD, an interagency committee was formed in 1987 with
representatives from DOD, the Department of Labor, the Department of
Justice, and the Office of Personnel Management to review existing law and
recommend legislative changes. This committee forwarded proposed
legislation to Congress in March 1991.
USERRA also provides employment and reemployment protection to reservists
who incur or aggravate a medical disability during their military
service.20 In these instances, generally a three-part reemployment scheme
is required. First, the employer must make reasonable efforts to
accommodate a person's disability so that the person can perform the
position that he or she would have held if continuously employed. Second,
if regardless of accommodation efforts a person is not qualified for his
or her original position due to a disability, he or she must be offered
employment in a position of equivalent seniority, status, and pay--so long
as the employee is qualified to perform the duties of that position or
could become qualified with reasonable efforts by the employer. Finally,
if the employee cannot become qualified for his or her prior position or
its equivalent, he or she must be offered employment in a position that
most nearly approximates the prior position in terms of seniority, status,
and pay consistent with the circumstances of the person's case.
Figure 1 shows the process for servicemembers to resolve a USERRA
complaint using federal assistance.
20 38 U.S.C. S4313 (a)(3).
Figure 1: Process to Resolve a USERRA Complaint Using Federal Assistance
DOD shares responsibility with the Department of Labor to inform
servicemembers and their employers of their rights, benefits, and
obligations under USERRA.21 DOD's Employer Support of the Guard and
Reserve provides this training to reservists. The Office of the Under
Secretary of Defense (Personnel and Readiness) develops the policies,
plans, and programs that manage the readiness of both active and reserve
forces, and within that office, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Reserve Affairs oversees that activities of Employer Support. Much of
Employer Support's work is done through its more than 4,000 volunteers,
who help to educate servicemembers and employers about USERRA. A subgroup
of about 800 specially trained volunteers act as impartial ombudsmen to
informally mediate USERRA issues that arise between reservists and their
employers. Ombudsmen handle complaints of reservists who are located
geographically nearby. When ombudsmen cannot resolve a complaint
informally, they notify the reservist of other options available to
formally address complaints, such as filing a complaint with the
Department of Labor or hiring private counsel.
The Department of Labor provides assistance to servicemembers with USERRA
formal complaints primarily through its Veterans' Employment and Training
Service. When a servicemember leaves active duty and a USERRA-related
complaint develops against his or her civilian employer, the servicemember
can file a formal complaint via computer at www.vets1010.dol.gov or
can file a printed copy of the complaint with the Secretary of Labor. A
Veterans' Employment and Training Service investigator located close to
the employer will examine the complaint and attempt to resolve the
complaint between servicemember and employer. If the Department of Labor
is unable to resolve the complaint, it informs the servicemembers that the
complaint can be referred to the Department of Justice or to the Office of
Special Counsel. Before formal complaints are sent to the Department of
Justice or the Office of Special Counsel, the Veterans' Employment and
Training Service prepares a memorandum of referral, which includes an
analysis of the key evidence and issues so as to ensure that the
investigations were thorough and documentation is accurate and sufficient.
The referrals are also reviewed by a Department of Labor Solicitor's
Office, which analyzes all legal issues raised by the complainants.
Although both the Veterans' Employment and Training Service and the
Solicitor's Office determine if the complaints have merit, the Department
of Labor is required to pass the complaints onto the Department of Justice
or the Office of Special Counsel if requested by servicemembers.
21The law also gives outreach responsibilities to the Secretary of
Veterans Affairs, but we did not review actions of the Department of
Veterans Affairs in supporting USERRA because its role is more limited
than that of the other four federal agencies.
The Department of Justice receives employment complaints from the
Department of Labor related to State or local government or private
employers. The Department of Justice reviews the file and determines
whether a complaint has merit. If so, the Department of Justice offers the
claimant representation and may pursue litigation; if not, it declines
representation. The Employment Litigation Section of the Civil Rights
Division handles most of the USERRA complaints, and under some
circumstances may refer a complaint to the appropriate United States
Attorney's Office for review or prosecution.
The Office of Special Counsel enforces USERRA rights on complaints the
Department of Labor receives about federal executive agencies. Under a
demonstration project authorized by the Veterans Benefits Improvement Act
of 2004,22 the Office of Special Counsel may now receive USERRA complaints
as soon as they are filed by certain members.23 Thus, the Office of
Special Counsel can use information from the Department of Labor to review
a referred complaint, but it can also review a complaint directly from a
servicemember without Department of Labor input. If the Office of Special
Counsel determines that the complaint has merit, it negotiates with the
servicemember's federal employer. If an agreement cannot be reached, the
Office of Special Counsel may represent the servicemember before the Merit
Systems Protection Board and can appeal a decision in the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In response to a congressional mandate,
we are currently assessing the Office of Special Counsel's demonstration
project and will issue a separate report in the spring of 2007.
22Pub. L. No. 108-454, S204 (2004).
23Under the demonstration project, established by the Veterans Benefits
Improvement Act of 2004, the Secretary of Labor refers to the Office of
Special Counsel all federal sector USERRA claims that contain an
allegation of a prohibited personnel practice over which the Office of
Special Counsel has jurisdiction. The Secretary transfers all USERRA
claims against a federal executive agency brought by claimants whose
social security numbers end in odd numbers.
DOD Has Made Progress Capturing Reserve Employment Information, but Challenges
Remain
Although DOD has established reporting requirements and compliance goals
for reservists to provide their employer information and has made progress
capturing much employer information, most reserve components have not met
these reporting goals. In addition, DOD does not know whether the employer
data it has obtained are current. Lastly, DOD has been unable to verify
employer data for approximately 24 percent of its reservists reporting
civilian employment. DOD acknowledges its verification process is not
adequate for determining the accuracy of all employer information,
particularly for small business.
DOD Has Made Progress Capturing Employer Information, but Most Components Have
Not Met Reporting Goals
Although DOD and the reserve components have made progress in capturing
employer information, most of the established reporting compliance goals
have not been met. In 2001, DOD established a database to collect
voluntarily reported employer information from reserve component members,
but few servicemembers submitted the data. Following a recommendation in
our 2002 report,24 DOD took steps to make the submission of employer
information mandatory. In March 2003, the Under Secretary of Defense for
Personnel and Readiness signed a memorandum25 directing each military
department to implement a civilian employment information program for the
collection of employer information and cited the need to utilize the
information in accomplishing employer outreach. Having complete civilian
employer information is also important to DOD's ability to make informed
decisions concerning which reservists should be called for active duty to
minimize the impact that mobilizations might have on occupations such as
law enforcement, and to determine how businesses may be affected by
reserve activation. In August 2004, DOD implemented regulations that
required each military department to implement employment-related
information reporting requirements for each officer, warrant officer, and
enlisted person assigned to the Ready Reserve. These Reservists are
required to report employment data--including whether they are employed
part-time or full-time, are a student, have specified voluntary service,26
or are not currently employed. If the reservist is employed, the reporting
instruction also asks for the employer's name and address, date of
employment, occupation code, and whether the reservist is self-employed.
According to DOD policy, this employment reporting is to be accomplished
when a member affiliates with the reserves, either through DOD's Defense
Manpower Data Center's Guard-Reserve Employer Web site or through their
reserve component, which then forwards the employment information to DOD
on a weekly basis. The Army National Guard, Air Force Reserve, Air
National Guard, and Marine Corps Reserve members input their data in the
Defense Manpower Data Center's Guard-Reserve Employer Web site. The Navy
Reserve, Coast Guard Reserve, and Army Reserve members first enter their
employment data into their personnel systems and then the components
forward the information to the Defense Manpower Data Center. We have
included details as of August 2006 on the civilian employment status
reported by reservists in the Selected Reserve from DOD's civilian
employment information program in appendix II and on the profiles of
reported employers of reservists in the Selected Reserve from DOD's
civilian employment information program in appendix III.
24GAO, Reserve Forces: DOD Actions Needed to Better Manage Relations
between Reservists and Their Employers, [34]GAO-02-608 (Washington, D.C.:
June 13, 2002).
25Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Memorandum on
Civilian Employment Information Program, March 21, 2003.
26Specified voluntary service includes activities such as those performed
in the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary and the Civil Air Patrol, or as
a volunteer to a community service organization.
The department has established a 95 percent reporting compliance goal for
the Selected Reserve and a 75 percent compliance goal for the Individual
Ready Reserve and Inactive National Guard. Prior to 2004, DOD had limited
success in obtaining employer-related data from the reserve components.
However, the percentage of Ready Reservists in compliance with
employment-related reporting requirements has increased from about 60
percent in August 2005 to about 77 percent in August 2006. DOD statistics
show an overall compliance rate of 91 percent for the Selected Reserve and
30 percent for the Individual Ready Reserve and Inactive National Guard
with good addresses as of August 2006. Table 2 illustrates the employment
reporting compliance rates and strength numbers for Selected Reserve
members as well as the Individual Ready Reserve and the Inactive National
Guard in each of the seven reserve components and DOD.
Table 2: Reserve Population and Percent of Compliance Achieved Toward
Civilian Employment Reporting Goals by DOD and the Reserve Components,
August 2006
Percent of
Percent of component
component compliance achieved Individual
compliance toward DOD's 75% Ready Reserve
achieved toward goal for Individual and Inactive
DOD's 95% goal Selected Ready Reserve and National
Reserve for Selected Reserve Inactive National Guard
components Reserve population Guard population population
Army National
Guard 93% 302,538 95% 1,927
Army Reserve 97 165,518 24 58,606
Navy Reserve 89 55,885 45 56,940
Marine Corps
Reserve 71 33,819 25 58,664
Air National
Guard 85 90,265 a a
Air Force
Reserve 85 71,339 23 38,545
Coast Guard
Reserve 78 7,922 13 4,284
DOD total 91% 727,286 30% 218,966
Source: DOD.
aThe Air National Guard does not have any Inactive National Guard or
Individual Ready Reserve members.
As table 2 shows, compliance rates vary widely among the different reserve
components, and few have met the established reporting goals. The Army
National Guard, which accounts for 32 percent of all members of the
reserve components, has met the Inactive National Guard reporting goal and
has nearly met the Selected Reserve goal, and the Army Reserve, which
accounts for an additional 26 percent of all reservists, has met the
Selected Reserve reporting goal. The other reserve components have not met
either of DOD's established compliance goals. The compliance rates for the
Individual Ready Reserve and Inactive National Guard are substantially
lower for the most part than they are for the Selected Reserve. Selected
Reservists in some reserve components such as the Army Reserve and Air
Force Reserve have established certain checks to capture their employment
information. For example, the Army's Human Resources Command call center
has an automatic pop-up screen which identifies soldiers with missing
employer data when they call in for assistance. According to a Command
official, if a soldier has not reported his or her employment information,
he or she is automatically routed to the Communications Hub Office to get
this employment data entered before obtaining assistance with other
matters. Career Managers have the same pop-up screen if the soldier is
able to bypass the main call line, so the manager can acquire and enter
employment data if a soldier has not reported that information. Further,
Air Force's online personnel system has similar reminders to prompt airmen
about this employment data.
Although the Army Reserve and Army National Guard have met some of the
reporting goals for the Selected Reserve and the Individual Ready Reserve
and Inactive National Guard, other reserve components have not. DOD does
not have specific time frames for reserve components to achieve their
reporting goals, and has not directed the service components to take
actions to assure compliance. According to the DOD official responsible
for managing the employment information database, the services' civilian
employment reporting requirements are relatively new and while the
consequences for noncompliance are defined, the official was not aware of
any enforcement actions that reserve components have taken at this time.
The Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness mandated the
collection of employer information in a March 2003 memorandum. According
to the memorandum, a member of the Ready Reserve who refuses to provide
the information or who knowingly provides false information may be subject
to administrative action or punishment under the Uniformed Code of
Military Justice. However, reserve component officials we interviewed
indicated that they were not aware of situations where the department had
imposed any punishment or administrative action for members failing to
report employment-related information. DOD acknowledges a need to obtain
additional information on members of the Individual Ready Reserve and
Inactive National Guard, which, as of August 2006, comprised approximately
one-quarter of the Ready Reserve, with over 218,000 members. However, DOD
has not placed emphasis on collecting employer information for these
reservists. The Office of the Assistance Secretary of Defense for Reserve
Affairs acknowledged that it has concentrated its efforts on obtaining
employment information for members of the Selected Reserves, especially
the Army Reserve and Army National Guard, which are the larger part of the
Ready Reserve and are more frequently deployed. According to a DOD
official, compliance is more difficult with regard to the Individual Ready
Reserve and Inactive National Guard, because the reserve components face
challenges in locating these members.
In recent years, we have issued a number of reports highlighting concerns
regarding the availability of Individual Ready Reservist contact
information.27 Specifically, in April 2003, we reported that many of the
Individual Ready Reserve members were not available for mobilization
because the services did not have valid contact information (addresses or
phone numbers) for these individuals. At that time, we recommended that
the Secretary of Defense direct the service secretaries to develop and use
results-oriented performance metrics to guide service efforts to gain and
maintain improved information on Individual Ready Reserve members and
review and update their Individual Ready Reserve policies. Also, in
September 2004, we recommended that DOD should gather better information
about its reserve component forces. Additionally, in September 2006, we
reported that the time needed to identify, locate, and contact members of
the Army's Individual Ready Reserve would be a significant drawback for
meeting future requirements. Without better employment information, DOD's
ability to conduct employer outreach and make mobilization decisions that
might affect first responders and communities is limited.
Some Reserve Employment Data May Not Be Current
Some of reported employer data in DOD's employer database may not reflect
current employment since the services have not established a formal
mechanism to encourage reservists to keep this information up to date.
Although reservists are required to update their employment information
when changes occur, the extent to which this update is occurring and the
extent to which DOD's employer data include current employer information
is unknown. Information obtained during our site visits to Reserve and
National Guard units raised doubts about the currency of reported
employment data. We held a total of 17 group discussions with over 100
reservists--which were stratified to include senior officers, junior
officers, senior enlisted, and junior enlisted members--to discuss
employer reporting and USERRA issues. A common theme that emerged from
these discussions was that reservists generally were aware of the DOD
requirement to report employer information and had at some point reported
their employment status, but were not aware of the requirement to update
their employer information when they changed employers. After our initial
site visits, we discussed the issue of current employer data with the DOD
official responsible for managing the employer database. The official
confirmed that DOD policy requires reservists to update their employer
information when changes occur, but DOD does not have a formal mechanism
in place to encourage reservists to do so.
27GAO, Military Personnel: DOD Needs to Address Long-term Reserve Force
Availability and Related Mobilization and Demobilization Issues,
[35]GAO-04-1031 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 15, 2004); GAO, Force Structure:
DOD Needs to Integrate Data into Its Force Identification Process and
Examine Options to Meet Requirements for High-Demand Support Forces,
[36]GAO-06-962 (Washington, D.C.: Sept. 5, 2006); GAO, Military Personnel:
DOD Actions Needed to Improve the Efficiency of Mobilizations for Reserve
Forces, [37]GAO-03-921 (Washington, D.C.: Aug.. 21, 2003).
While not a formal review process, some reserve components such as the
Army Reserve and Air Force Reserve indicated they have a tool in place
that prompts their members to review and update employment information and
other personnel data yearly on the month of their enlistment anniversary.
Further, reservists in these components are reminded to update their
employer information when accessing their online personnel or human
resources system. The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Reserve Affairs is considering revising its employment reporting
instruction to require annual reviews and updates of reported employer
information, but DOD and the services do not currently have a formal
review mechanism in place to encourage reservists to review
employment-related data on a recurring basis.
Even if DOD and the services meet established civilian employment
reporting goals, it means little if the employer data are not current.
Without current data, DOD's ability to determine which reserve members to
activate, including those employed in civilian positions related to health
care and law enforcement that are essential to maintaining national health
and safety, is limited. The extent to which reservists' employer data are
not current also affects DOD's ability to conduct employer outreach.
Current Data Verification Process Is Not Adequate for Some Civilian Employers
Although DOD has taken steps to verify the accuracy of reservist-reported
employment data, its process is not adequate for verifying some civilian
employers, including small businesses that employ less than 50 people. The
department has a particular interest in obtaining information on small
businesses that employ reservists and self-employed reservists because of
the potential impact that mobilizations may have on small business and
self-employed reservists. The impact of reservists' mobilizations on
businesses depends upon the position or function performed by the
reservist employed. Although large and small businesses are both affected
by mobilizations, the loss of a single employee from a small business is
more likely to have an immediate and significant impact on the business.
The department currently relies on Dun and Bradstreet to verify and
supplement employer data submitted by reserve members. Dun and Bradstreet
maintains a comprehensive global business database, consisting of over 107
million companies. Its database contains data elements on each of those
businesses that range from basic identification to value-added business
intelligence information. Basic data identification elements include items
such as company name, physical address, mailing address, and phone number.
Value-added business intelligence includes information such as number of
employees, and standard industrial codes.
DOD has been unable to verify employer information for approximately 24
percent of reservists (108,125 of 453,596) reporting full-time or
part-time civilian employment as of August 2006. Dun and Bradstreet have
been unable to verify this information for DOD because either the employer
information did not match its data or some industry details were missing.
DOD and Dun and Bradstreet officials acknowledge the difficulties involved
in capturing data on some employers, especially those that are small
businesses. A challenge to collecting small business data involves
employing mechanisms for collecting accurate information on new businesses
and for tracking changes to the businesses, such as location and mergers.
Verification of employer information for small business represents a
particular challenge since small businesses in general such as doctors,
lawyers, accountants, and carpenters are far less likely to be captured in
the verification process than large corporations.
Figure 2 illustrates the breakout of the 181,438 selected reservists
employed in the private sector by business size whose reported employment
has been verified as private sector related. For this group, the data show
that 35 percent (63,634 of 181,438) were employed by small businesses with
less than 50 employees.
Figure 2: Number and Percent of Selected Reservists Reporting Work in the
Private Sector by Business Size (Number of Employees)
Note: The unmatched category includes employer information that was
partially verified but incomplete information was available to determine
company size.
Table 3 shows a breakdown of these 63,634 Selected Reserve members with
verified employer information who are employed in small businesses for
each reserve component by number and percent. The Army National Guard and
the Army Reserve have the greatest number and percent of members who are
employed in small business when compared to the DOD total.
Table 3: Number and Percent of Selected Reservists Reporting Employment by
Small Businesses with Less than 50 Employees by Reserve Component and
Total
Number of Percent of Percent of component's
reservists component's reservists employed in
Reserve employed in small reservists employed small business
component business a in small business compared to total
Army National
Guard 23,698 37% 37%
Air National
Guard 5,769 31 9
Army Reserve 19,172 37 30
Air Force
Reserve 4,968 27 8
Navy Reserve 7,799 33 12
Marine Corps
Reserve 1,784 38 3
Coast Guard
Reserve 444 40 1
Total 63,634 35% 100% b
Source: DOD's Civilian Employment Information Database.
aFor purposes of this report, small businesses are identified as
businesses having 50 employees or less.
bPercent may not add due to rounding.
As of August 2006, about 5 percent of employed reservists, 23,871 of the
453,596, reported they were self-employed. As shown in figure 3, the
largest number of self-employed reservists report working in occupations
related to management, construction and extraction, and healthcare
practitioners and technical occupations.
Figure 3: Occupations with the Greatest Amount of 23,871 Self-Employed
Reservists Reporting
According to Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve
Affairs officials, they are currently exploring alternative resources for
verifying small business employer information. DOD has begun discussions
with the Census Bureau to obtain aggregate information on small business
addresses. Additionally, DOD is in the process of working with the Small
Business Administration in an attempt to develop strategies to improve the
collection and management of employer information on small businesses.
Congress and DOD Do Not Have the Comprehensive Information Necessary to Allow
for Oversight of Reservists' USERRA Complaints
The four federal agencies responsible for assisting reservists with USERRA
complaints--DOD's Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, the
Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training Service, the
Department of Justice, and the Office of Special Counsel--track and
address these complaints; however, Congress does not have the
comprehensive information necessary to allow for complete oversight of all
reservist USERRA complaints. The Secretary of Labor is required by law to
provide an annual report to Congress on the number of formal USERRA
complaints reviewed by the agency and referred to the Attorney General or
Office of Special Counsel. However this report does not include informal
complaints filed with DOD's Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve,
which account for approximately 80 percent of all reservists' reemployment
complaints. In addition, DOD lacks complete information on all reservists'
USERRA complaints filed because it does not have visibility over
complaints reported directly to the Veterans' Employment and Training
Service or the Office of Special Counsel. Finally, the information we
obtained on the more than 16,000 total informal and formal complaints
revealed that the nature of these USERRA complaints could not be uniformly
categorized to completely reveal trends in the types of problems that
reservists returning from deployment experience because of differences in
complaint categories.
Data in the Department of Labor's Report to Congress Represent Only 20 Percent
of Complaints Filed
The complaint data that the Department of Labor reported to Congress for
fiscal years 2004 and 2005 did not include 80 percent, or 9,975 of the
12,421 total informal and formal USERRA complaints filed by reservists
during that period. The Secretary of Labor is required by law to provide
an annual report that includes information on the number of cases it
reviewed, the nature and status of each case reported, as well as the
number of cases referred to the Attorney General or the Office of Special
Counsel.28 Relatively few formal complaints reach the Department of
Justice and the Office of Special Counsel each year since the formal
process begins at Veterans' Employment and Training Service, and
complaints may be resolved there and not forwarded to the Department of
Justice or the Office of Special Counsel.29 Nonetheless, the Secretary of
Labor is required by law to include information on the number of
complaints filed by the Attorney General, as well as an indication of
whether there are any apparent patterns of violation and recommendations
for administrative or legislative action that the Secretary, the Attorney
General, or the Special Counsel considers necessary for the effective
implementation of USERRA. In additional to filing formal complaints with
these agencies, complainants can also file informal USERRA complaints with
DOD's Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve. However, Congress is not
informed about these informal complaints because USERRA does not require
the Secretary of Labor to include informal complaint information from DOD
in its annual report to Congress. Further, DOD's Employer Support of the
Guard and Reserve does not provide information to Congress, in any form,
on the number and nature of informal USERRA complaints that it receives
each year. The informal complaints filed with DOD's Employer Support are
similar in nature and no less significant than the formal complaints filed
with the Department of Labor or other agencies. For example, in fiscal
year 2006, discrimination for military obligations was the top complaint
filed with both DOD's Employer Support and the Veterans' Employment and
Training Service. By contacting DOD's Employer Support, reservists' USERRA
issues may be resolved more expeditiously, as the organization tries to
resolve pay-related USERRA complaints in 7 days and other USERRA
complaints within 14 days. According to the agency data, more than 95
percent of informal complaints reported to DOD's Employer Support are
resolved without being forwarded to the Department of Labor for action.
28Section 4332 of Title 38, U.S.C. requires that the Secretary of Labor,
in consultation with the Attorney General and the Special Counsel, prepare
an annual report to Congress. The law previously specified that the report
was to be transmitted by February 1, 1996, and annually thereafter through
2000. The act was amended in 2004 to require a report by February 1, 2005,
and annually thereafter.
According to a ranking DOD official, based on projections from the May
2004 Defense Manpower Data Center survey, of the reservists who sought
assistance for a USERRA issue, between 53 and 79 percent sought assistance
from DOD's Employer Support, but only between 15 and 37 percent sought
help from the Veterans' Employment and Training Service. As shown in table
4, reservists filed a total of 9,975 informal USERRA complaints with DOD's
Employer Support in fiscal years 2004 and 2005. These numbers represent
USERRA complaints that reservists filed and do not include the many calls
that DOD's Employer Support receives for basic information.30 However, the
Secretary of Labor's annual report to Congress included only the 2,446
formal USERRA complaints filed for that same time period.
29As noted earlier, the demonstration project will affect the number of
complaints filed at the Office of Special Counsel since it has received
complaints directly from certain servicemembers since the project began.
Table 4: Informal and Formal Complaints Reservists Filed with DOD's
Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, the Veterans' Employment and
Training Service, and the Office of Special Counsel,a Fiscal Years 2004
and 2005
Informal Formal
complaints Formal complaints complaints Grand total of
reported to reported to Veterans' reported to the informal and
Fiscal DOD's employer Employment and Office of formal
year support b Training Service Special Counsel complaints
2004 5,839 1,280 c 7,119
2005 4,136 1,054 112 5,302
Total 9,975 2,334 112 12,421
Source: GAO based on the Department of Labor's USERRA Annual Report to
Congress, fiscal years 2004 and 2005 and data from DOD's Employer Support.
aThe data reported by the Office of Special Counsel in the Department of
Labor's Annual Report to Congress includes information on all USERRA
complaints filed with the agency under the demonstration project,
including reservists, veterans (including disabled veterans), and others,
including members of the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health
Service, former active duty personnel who alleged USERRA rights violations
based on their enlistment in the Armed Forces, persons who filed both on
the bases of their prior military service (i.e., veteran status) and
present military service obligation (i.e., Guard or Reserve duty), persons
whose connection with a uniformed service was unknown, and persons who
could not establish membership in a uniformed service.
bThe complaint data from DOD's Employer Support are based on the number of
cases closed for fiscal years 2004 and 2005. The complaint data from the
Veterans' Employment and Training Service and the Office of Special
Counsel are based on the number of cases opened for that same time period.
cThe Office of Special Counsel demonstration project did not begin until
February 8, 2005; therefore, there were no formal complaints filed with
the Office of Special Counsel included in the Department of Labor's Annual
Report to Congress in fiscal year 2004.
Without data from DOD's Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve,
Congress has limited visibility over the full range of USERRA issues that
reservists face following deployment. Further, without these data,
Congress may lack the information for its oversight of reserve employment
matters needed to take actions that may be necessary to more effectively
implement USERRA.
30DOD's Employer Support also receives calls that it refers to as
"information only." The calls pertain to any issue that is not a potential
USERRA violation.
DOD Lacks Complete Information on All USERRA Complaints
DOD's Employer Support does not have information on, and therefore cannot
track, reservists' USERRA complaints reported directly to the Veterans'
Employment and Training Service and the Office of Special Counsel. As
noted in the Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government,31
management should ensure there are adequate means of obtaining information
from others that may have a significant impact on the agency achieving its
goals. However, despite recent enhancements to the Veterans' Employment
and Training Service database which were designed to increase interagency
coordination in managing USERRA case information, the Department of
Labor's system allows each agency visibility over only those complaints
that originate within their agency.
Following a recommendation in our 2005 report,32 the Veterans' Employment
and Training Service implemented an enhancement to its USERRA Information
Management System in October 2006 to enable the four USERRA coordinating
agencies to electronically transfer case information between agencies. The
database enhancement allows DOD's Employer Support of the Guard and
Reserve, the Veterans' Employment and Training Service, the Department of
Justice, and the Office of Special Counsel to access and update the status
of cases using the internet.33 In cases where a reservist files a formal
complaint with the Veterans' Employment and Training Service and
identifies DOD's Employer Support involvement in the case, the enhanced
database will send an automated e-mail message to DOD's Employer Support.
The e-mail will contain a link by which DOD's Employer Support can enter
case information on the claimant. In addition, DOD's Employer Support will
receive an e-mail notification each time the status of cases originating
with it changes. An automatic e-mail notification will also be sent to the
Department of Justice or the Office of Special Counsel when a reservist
decides to refer a case to either agency. Additionally, the Office of
Special Counsel's USERRA unit chief will receive an automated e-mail
notification when the Veterans' Employment and Training Service opens,
refers, or resolves a federal sector claim opened during the term of the
demonstration project.34
31 [38]GAO/AIMD-00-21 .3.1.
32GAO, Military Personnel: Federal Management of Servicemember Employment
Rights Can be Further Improved, [39]GAO-06-60 (Washington, D.C.: Oct. 19,
2005).
33All information related to Office of Special Counsel demonstration
project cases will be stored in a separate dataset throughout the entire
life cycle of all demonstration project cases.
Officials from each agency are able to see USERRA complaint information
such as whether a case is open or closed, which agency is currently
addressing it, and how long it took to resolve, and they are able to
produce a report containing aggregate USERRA complaint data on the cases
over which they have jurisdiction. However, only the Veterans' Employment
and Training Service has visibility over the entire USERRA complaint
process for all USERRA cases from submission--with the Veterans'
Employment and Training Service--to resolution. Even though DOD's Employer
Support of the Guard and Reserve has coresponsibility with the Veterans'
Employment and Training Service for overseeing implementation of USERRA,35
the system does not make aggregate reservist USERRA complaint data
available to DOD's Employer Support. DOD's Employer Support has visibility
over only those complaints that originated with its office, provided the
complainant notified the Veterans' Employment and Training Service that he
or she had previously notified DOD's Employer Support. Likewise, the
Department of Justice and Office of Special Counsel have visibility over
only those complaints that have been reported or referred to them, but the
number of reservists' USERRA complaints that these two agencies address
are relatively few in comparison to the total.
According to Veterans' Employment and Training Service officials, when the
enhancement was being developed, the Department of Labor's Solicitor's
Office determined that, due to the sensitive nature of the information
that could be contained in the database, each agency's access would be
limited to information about which it has a need to know. However, just as
it is important for the Veterans' Employment and Training Service to have
visibility over all USERRA cases, it is also important for DOD's Employer
Support of the Guard and Reserve to have aggregate information on all
reserve USERRA cases, excluding those details of a sensitive nature, even
if those cases did not originate with their Employer Support organization.
DOD's Employer Support also has direct responsibility for the reservists
who are experiencing USERRA issues. Without knowledge of the USERRA
complaints filed with the Veterans' Employment and Training Service and
the Office of Special Counsel, DOD does not have complete information on
the reemployment issues that its reservists have experienced.
34The demonstration project runs from February 8, 2005, through September
30, 2007. According to Veterans' Employment and Training Service
officials, the Office of Special Counsel will begin entering case
information into the system for fiscal year 2007 through the end of the
pilot project.
35 38 U.S.C. S 4333.
USERRA Complaints Could Not Be Uniformly Categorized to Reveal Trends on the
Types of USERRA Issues Experienced by Reservists
The information we obtained on the more than 16,000 total informal
complaints filed with DOD's Employer Support and formal complaints filed
with the Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training Service
and the Office of Special Counsel between fiscal years 2004 and 2006
showed that the nature of those complaints could not be uniformly
categorized in order to reveal trends on the kinds of problems that
returning reservists experience because the four USERRA agencies
responsible for addressing complaints use different complaint categories
to characterize these issues.36 In line with the Standards for Internal
Control in the Federal Government,37 it is essential that different sets
of related data be compared and assessed so that analyses of the
relationships can be made and corrective actions taken, if necessary.
However, because the databases of the four agencies responsible for USERRA
were created for different purposes, the data collected are not conducive
to a meaningful comparison. In particular, the two agencies that see the
highest volume of cases, DOD's Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve
and the Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training Service,
use different complaint categories to identify reservists' USERRA
complaints, such as being refused job reinstatement, denied an appropriate
pay rate, or being denied vacation time.
USERRA Coordinating Agencies' Databases Collect Different Data for Different
Purposes
The databases of the USERRA coordinating agencies were created for
different purposes. For example, Veterans' Employment and Training Service
developed its database to track USERRA complaints to fulfill its reporting
requirement to Congress.38 However, DOD's Employer Support began tracking
USERRA complaint information in a centralized database as a result of our
2002 finding39 that it did not have an accurate count of complaints
handled by ombudsmen. Because these two agencies created their databases
for different purposes, they do not have uniform complaint categories. For
example, for DOD's Employer Support there are several issues that fall
under the category of pay:
36As noted earlier, this total includes informal complaints filed by
reservists with DOD's Employer Support between fiscal years 2004 and 2006,
and the formal complaints reported by the Department of Labor's Veterans'
Employment and Training Service in its fiscal year 2004 and 2005 reports
to Congress. The fiscal year 2006 report was not available within the time
frames of our review. In addition, the Department of Justice is assigned
enforcement responsibilities under USERRA, but the Department of Justice
is not authorized to receive USERRA complaints directly from
servicemembers.
37 [40]GAO/AIMD-00-21 .3.1.
3838 U.S.C. S 4332.
o employee paid less than others in comparable positions;
o employee not given a raise;
o pay of salaried employee reduced because of military absence;
and
o employee did not receive paid military leave in accordance
with employer policy.
For the Veterans' Employment and Training Service, the pay rate complaint
category addresses the following:
o failure to meet the requirement that the reservist be restored
to a position with the same rate of pay as would have been paid
had the reservist not been absent for military service.
Unlike DOD's Employer Support, this category does not include complaints
regarding paid military leave.
While the complaint categories used by the Department of Justice and the
Office of Special Counsel to categorize USERRA complaints are also
different from DOD's Employer Support and the Department of Labor, the
number of complaints that these two agencies address are few in comparison
to the total. In addition, complaints do not originate with the Department
of Justice; they are referred from the Department of Labor. Therefore the
complaints contained in the Department of Justice's database would already
be contained in the Department of Labor's system. Further, although the
Office of Special Counsel has directly received certain Federal USERRA
complaints under the demonstration project,40 to date it has received few,
relative to the total number of complaints filed (federal and
nonfederal).41
39 [41]GAO-02-608 . This report found that reporting by ombudsmen had been
sporadic and some field offices had gone an entire year without reporting
any complaints at all.
40The demonstration project was authorized by the Veterans Benefits
Improvement Act of 2004, Pub. L. No. 108-454, S 204 (2004).
The complaint categories used by DOD's Employer Support and the Department
of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training Service, which handle the
largest number of USERRA complaints, are not completely compatible. As a
result of the incompatibility of the complaint categories, neither DOD nor
the Veterans' Employment and Training Service have yet to consolidate
information to identify complete trends on the nature of reservists'
USERRA complaints that may not be readily apparent. As reservists continue
to demobilize and the possibility of a USERRA complaint exists, this trend
information on USERRA issues may assist Congress and DOD in making
informed decisions concerning USERRA.
Disabled Reserve Members' USERRA Complaints Are Not Systematically Recorded or
Tracked
The four agencies--DOD's Employer Support, the Department of Labor's
Veterans' Employment and Training Service, the Office of Special Counsel,
and the Department of Justice--responsible for addressing and tracking
USERRA claims cannot systematically record and track disability-related
employment complaints. In essence, these agencies do not record
disability-related complaints using consistent and compatible complaint
categories or distinguish disability-related complaints from other types
of complaints for tracking and reporting purposes.42 Therefore, the nearly
200 disability-related USERRA claims filed with DOD's Employer Support and
the Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training Service from
fiscal year 2004 through fiscal year 2006 may be understated. Further, DOD
may only have knowledge of those claims initially filed with Employer
Support. DOD may not be aware of 43 formal disability-related complaints
if they were filed directly with the Veterans' Employment and Training
Service. Without tracking disabled reservists' employment complaints, DOD
may not be completely aware of the effect that disabilities incurred by
reservists while on active duty have on their reemployment, and what
additional assistance may be needed to help transition this population
back into the workforce.
41According to the Department of Labor's most recent report to Congress,
fiscal year 2005, the Office of Special Counsel opened 112 federal cases
under the demonstration project, which began February 8, 2005. In this
report, the Department of Labor reported opening 1,241 (federal and
nonfederal) new cases. This number includes reservists, military veterans,
and persons with no prior or current military membership.
42The Office of Special Counsel recently modified its database to permit
the identification of eight additional allegation categories, including
Injured Reservist-Discrimination, Injured Reservist-Reemployment, Injured
Guardsman-Discrimination, and Injured Guardsman- Reemployment.
Agencies Do Not Use Consistent, Compatible Categories to Track
Disability-Related Complaints
Specifically, agency officials indicated that all four agencies involved
in tracking and addressing USERRA disability-related complaints, such as
an employer's failure to provide reasonable accommodation, like any other
type of USERRA complaint; however, they do not record disability-related
complaints using consistent and compatible categories to allow information
analysis and reporting. For example, DOD's Employer Support classifies
USERRA disability-related complaints within three categories including
medical benefits, job placement, and time limits for reemployment, while
the Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training Service uses
one category, reasonable accommodation and retraining for disabled, to
classify USERRA disability-related complaints. The Department of Justice
classifies and tracks USERRA complaints, including those that may be
disability related, within 11 categories such as assignment, benefit,
discharge, reemployment, and termination; and the Office of Special
Counsel uses four categories--reprisal, discrimination, disabled veteran
discrimination, and reemployment rights--to record USERRA complaints,
including those that may be disability related. Table 5 shows the
complaint classifications used by DOD's Employer Support, the Department
of Labor's Veterans' Employment and Training Service, the Department of
Justice, and the Office of Special Counsel to record disability-related
complaints.
Table 5: Type of USERRA Disability-Related Complaint Classifications by
Agency
Veterans' Office
DOD's Employment of
How disability-related claim may Employer and Training Department Special
be classified by agencies Support Service of Justice Counsel
Medical benefits: Employee X
incurred/ aggravated medical
disability during service
Job placement: Employer does not X
accommodate returning disabled
employee
Time limits for reemployment: X
Employee incurred/aggravated
disability during service
Reasonable X
accommodations/retraining for
disabled
Disabled veteran discrimination X
Reprisal X
Reemployment X X
Discrimination X X
Assignment X
Benefit X
Discharge X
Discipline X
Hiring X
Promotion X
Retaliation X
Termination X
Miscellaneous X
Source: GAO analysis of agency reporting codes.
Agencies Do Not Have a System to Distinguish Disability-Related Complaints from
Other Types of Complaints
While the categories depicted above may include disability-related cases,
other disability-related complaints may not be classified as such. Some
claimants may not have identified their disability when filing a case or
the case worker may not have classified the disability as the primary
complaint. For example, DOD Employer Support customer service personnel
and ombudsmen do not specifically inquire if cases are related to a
disability. If the complainant indicates that the case involves a
disability, DOD's Employer Support will classify it accordingly.
Otherwise, the case may be categorized within other DOD Employer Support
classifications as determined by the case worker taking the complaint.
In addition, a single USERRA complaint may involve a number of different
issues or violations that complicates case classification and
categorization by the agencies. As a result, disability-related complaints
may not be distinguishable from any other types of complaints for tracking
and reporting purposes. During fiscal year 2003 through fiscal year 2005,
for example, the Office of Special Counsel filed three discrimination
cases and one reemployment rights case with the Merit System Protection
Board. One of the cases, initially classified as a discrimination case,
was based on a USERRA disability-related violation that involved a U.S.
Postal Service employee who had been called to active military service. As
a Postal Service employee, this person's job entailed the lifting of heavy
packages. While on active duty, he suffered a shoulder injury that
prevented him from doing his job when he returned to his civilian
employer. According to the complaint, the Postal Service terminated the
reservist without making any effort to find him a suitable alternative
position. The Office of Special Counsel later alleged violations of both
the antidiscrimination provisions and reemployment rights provisions of
USERRA when a suit was filed. Additionally, the Department of Justice
routinely classifies USERRA complaints involving multiple violations
within all applicable categories. No distinction is made concerning the
relevance of one violation compared to another within the various
categories. The Department of Labor officials also indicated that to
ensure that all disability-related cases were properly categorized,
virtually all case notes and case files would have to be reviewed.
DOD Does Not Have Complete Visibility over Disability-Related Employment
Complaints
Our analysis of DOD's Employer Support and the Department of Labor's
Veterans' Employment and Training Service disability-related complaint
categories indicated that about 200 disability-related USERRA claims were
filed with them from fiscal year 2004 through fiscal year 2006. We
believe, however, this number may be understated because DOD Employer
Support may have classified undisclosed disability-related complaints in
other categories and the Department of Labor's Veterans' Employment and
Training Service may have classified disability-related employment
complaints that included other USERRA violations in categories other than
the specific categories we reviewed and analyzed. Consequently, DOD may
not be fully aware of the actual number of disability-related complaints
filed by its reservists or the specific employment issues being
experienced by reservists seeking reemployment. Without such information,
DOD may find it difficult to assess the needs of its disabled reservists
experiencing reemployment issues and provide whatever additional
assistance may be needed to help transition this population back into the
workforce.
From fiscal years 2003 to 2006, DOD identified nearly 12,000 reservists as
disabled. These disabilities include physical impairments as well mental
distress received while on active duty. GAO has previously reported on the
risk of servicemembers returning from combat developing post-traumatic
stress disorder.43 Mental Health experts estimate that the intensity of
warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan could cause more than 15 percent of
servicemembers returning from these conflicts to develop post-traumatic
stress disorder. As long as current operations continue, servicemember
will place themselves at risk for becoming injured or potentially being
mentally traumatized, which could require DOD to make a greater investment
in offering assistance to these individuals.
Conclusions
Without better employer information, DOD cannot manage activities such as
conducting outreach to help employers understand their USERRA
responsibilities or know if its decisions are adversely affecting
communities by activating a large number of its first responders or
healthcare professionals, or disproportionately impacting small business
employers.
Currently, the Department of Labor's annual report to Congress includes
information about only formal USERRA complaints, which accounted for about
20 percent of all reservist complaints filed in fiscal year 2005. With the
Department of Labor reporting only reservists' formal USERRA complaint
data, Congress may not have enough information for its continued oversight
of reserve employment matters, and to help determine whether any revisions
to USERRA are warranted based on the nature of both formal and informal
complaints. Currently, DOD lacks complete information on all informal and
formal USERRA complaints filed by its reserve members. Thus, DOD may be
unable to determine the full extent of USERRA issues that its reservists
are facing. Lastly, as long as the agencies responsible for addressing
complaints continue to classify USERRA complaints differently in their
databases, consolidation of this information to identify complete trends
may prove to be difficult, limiting DOD's knowledge of the nature of
reservists' USERRA issues and the ability to take action on the most
common complaints to better assist reservists upon their return from
deployment.
43GAO, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: DOD Needs to Identify the Factors
Its Providers Use to Make Mental Health Evaluation Referrals for
Servicemembers, [42]GAO-06-397 (Washington, D.C.: May 11, 2006); and GAO,
VA Health Care: VA Should Expedite the Implementation of Recommendations
Needed to Improve Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Services, [43]GAO-05-287
(Washington, D.C.: Feb. 14, 2005).
Without systematic tracking of disabled reservists' reemployment
complaints, Congress and DOD may lack information about the actual number
of disability-related reemployment complaints filed by this group of
reservists after their demobilization and recovery. Further, without
visibility over disability-related complaints, DOD may find it difficult
to assess the reemployment challenges that its disabled reservists
experience upon their return to civilian employment and whether additional
assistance may be needed to help transition this population back into the
workforce. Having the ability to identify disability-related reemployment
complaints will become more crucial in the future as reservists continue
to face combat and expose themselves to serious injury in operations in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
Matter for Congressional Consideration
To gain a full perspective of the number and nature of USERRA complaints
filed by reservists in gaining reemployment upon returning from active
duty, Congress should consider amending 38 U.S.C. S4332 to require the
Department of Labor to include data from DOD's Employer Support of the
Guard and Reserve in its annual report to Congress.
Recommendations for Executive Action
To improve the reporting of reserve employment information and to enable
the components to meet the reporting compliance rate of 95 percent for the
Selected Reserve and 75 percent for the Individual Ready Reserve and
Inactive National Guard, we recommend that the Secretary of Defense direct
the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs to
establish specific time frames for reservists to report their employment
data, set specific time frames for reserve components to achieve the
established compliance reporting goals, and direct the service components
to take action to assure reporting compliance.
To encourage reservists to provide DOD with current employer data, we
recommend that the Secretary of Defense direct the Office of Assistant
Secretary for Reserve Affairs to update DODI 7730.54, Enclosure 10 on
civilian employment-related information reporting to instruct all military
departments to establish a formal review mechanism that would require all
reservists to review and update at least annually their reported
employment-related information.
To provide DOD with increased visibility over reserve USERRA complaints,
we recommend that the Secretary of Labor provide aggregate USERRA
complaint data to DOD's Employer Support for the Guard and Reserve.
To allow for complete analysis of trends in reporting reservist USERRA
complaints, we recommend that the Secretary of Defense and Secretary of
Labor adopt uniform complaint categories in the future that will allow
aggregate trend analysis to be performed across the databases.
To provide the agencies responsible for addressing USERRA complaints with
better information about disability-related employment complaints, we
recommend that the Secretary of Labor direct the Veterans' Employment and
Training Service to develop a system for recording and tracking
disability-related USERRA complaints reported by reservists, such as
establishing consistent and compatible complaint categories and
distinguishing disability-related complaints from other types of
complaints. The Veterans' Employment and Training Service should then
share this system with the other agencies responsible for addressing
USERRA complaints.
Agencies' Comments and Our Evaluation
In written comments on a draft of this report, the Department of Defense
(DOD) and the Department of Labor generally concurred with our findings
and recommendations that were directly applicable to their respective
agencies. The Office of Special Counsel also provided written comments
indicating that it concurred with our recommendations and found the report
to be comprehensive and accurate as it related to the responsibilities of
the Office of Special Counsel. Also, the Department of Labor and the
Office of Special Counsel concurred with our matter for congressional
consideration that Congress should consider amending 38 U.S.C. S4332 to
require the Department of Labor to include complaint data from DOD's
Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve in its annual report to
Congress. The Department of Justice reviewed a draft of this report and
had no comments. Each agency's comments are printed in its entirety in
appendices IV through VI. The agencies also provided technical comments,
which we incorporated as appropriate.
In DOD's written comments, the department partially concurred with our
recommendation that the Secretary of Defense direct the Office of the
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs to establish specific
time frames for reservists to report their employment data and direct the
service components to take action to assure compliance. DOD cited
Instruction 7730.54 issued on August 6, 2004, which directed the services
to obtain a 95 percent compliance rate for Civilian Employment Information
for the Selected Reserve and to obtain a 75 percent compliance rate for
the Individual Ready Reserve and Inactive National Guard with good
addresses, effective the date of the issuance of the Instruction (August
6, 2004). DOD also noted that the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel
and Readiness issued a memorandum to the Service Secretaries on November
19, 2004, requesting their assistance in collecting reservists' employment
information by February 1, 2005. Based on the instruction and the Under
Secretary's memorandum, DOD commented that specific time frames are in
place for the compliance reporting of civilian employment information. We
disagree. As our report points out, in August 2005--6 months after the
February 2005 reporting time frame--not all reservists had complied with
the reporting requirement. In August 2005, the overall number of Ready
Reservists reporting employer information to DOD was about 60 percent.
This number improved to about 77 percent overall in August 2006, but still
short of DOD's goals. We continue to believe that DOD needs to establish a
new deadline by which reservists must report their employer information to
DOD. In addition to establishing new reporting requirements for individual
reservists, we noted throughout our draft report that DOD has not set
specific time frames for reserve components to achieve the established
compliance reporting goals. We believe it is essential that DOD establish
such time frames. In its written comments, DOD agreed to issue a
memorandum directing the reserve components to meet the full compliance
reporting for members of the Selected Reserve. However, DOD did not state
that the memorandum would include a specific deadline by which reserve
components would have to achieve full compliance reporting. Also, DOD
stated that the memorandum would address only the goals for the Selected
Reserve. We also believe this memorandum should direct the reserve
components to meet full compliance reporting for the Individual Ready
Reserve and Inactive National Guard members, as well. We have modified our
recommendation to state that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Reserve Affairs should set specific time frames for reserve components to
achieve the established compliance reporting goals.
DOD concurred with our recommendation that the Secretary of Defense direct
the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Reserve Affairs to update DOD
instruction 7730.54 Enclosure 10 on civilian employment-related
information reporting to instruct all military departments to establish a
formal review mechanism that would require all reservists to review and
update their reported employment-related information at least annually.
DOD stated that it has drafted a revision to DOD instruction 7730.54 that
requires an annual review of civilian employment information. According to
DOD, while this revision is being processed for reissuance, the Army
National Guard has recommended consideration of adding a pop-up screen to
its existing Web site to prompt service members to validate employment
data and capture the validation date. Navy Operational Support Centers
will also ensure an annual verification of employment data and record
changes in this information when notified.
DOD also concurred with our recommendation that the Secretary of Defense
and the Secretary of Labor adopt uniform complaint categories in the
future that will allow aggregate trend analysis to be performed across the
databases. DOD noted that National Committee for Employer Support of the
Guard and Reserve staff members are working with Department of Labor staff
to facilitate uniformity of complaint categories which will allow for like
data points in each department's database.
In the Department of Labor's written comments, the department concurred
with our recommendation that the Secretary of Labor make aggregate USERRA
complaint data available to the DOD's Employer Support for the Guard and
Reserve. It noted that it has provided such information to Reserve
Affairs, the National Guard Bureau, and the Defense Manpower Data Center.
The Department of Labor has agreed to start providing aggregate
information to DOD's Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve on a
quarterly basis.
The Department of Labor also concurred with our recommendation that the
Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Labor adopt uniform complaint
categories in the future that will allow aggregate trend analysis to be
performed across the databases. It noted that it is working with DOD's
Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve to determine the appropriate
means to achieve that goal. The Department of Labor is enhancing its
USERRA information management system in cooperation with DOD's Employer
Support, the Department of Justice, and the Office of Special Counsel to
effect our recommendation. The Department of Labor stated that these
changes will improve case handling and aid in compiling accurate and
meaningful case data, including pertinent data involving USERRA disability
cases from DOD's Employer Support and the Department of Labor's Veterans'
Employment and Training Service.
The Department of Labor also concurred with our recommendation that the
Secretary of Labor direct the Veterans' Employment and Training Service to
develop a system for recording and tracking disability-related complaints
reported by reservists, such as establishing consistent and compatible
complaint categories and distinguishing disability-related complaints from
other types of complaints. The Veterans' Employment and Training Service
should then share this system with the other agencies responsible for
addressing USERRA complaints. It noted that its statutory authority to
collect such disability-related data is limited to USERRA complaints. It
also noted that to avoid ambiguity with its recommendation, GAO may want
to clarify that the recommendation covers only the identification of
USERRA complaints where the servicemember's disability is a factor in the
case rather than a requirement to capture all disability complaints that
reservists might raise. In response to the Department of Labor's comments,
we revised this recommendation to make clear that we are not asking the
Department of Labor to collect information that extends beyond its USERRA
statutory authority.
Finally, the Department of Labor's comments state that our report does not
adequately differentiate between "informal inquiries" and "formal
complaints," and that we categorize all inquiries as complaints,
regardless of content. The Department of Labor further states that our
report's lack of differentiation unnecessarily inflates the total number
of USERRA complaints by 9,975. We disagree for the following reasons.
First, we do not use the term "informal inquiries" anywhere in our report.
We use the terms "informal complaints" and "formal complaints." Second, we
took great care throughout the report to differentiate our use of the
terms "informal" and "formal" complaints. For example, our report's
introduction section very carefully stipulates that reservists have both
"informal" and "formal" options to report their USERRA complaints. We note
that DOD's Employer Support program and the military chain of command are
"informal" sources available to reservists, and clearly stipulate, both in
narrative and in a footnote, that complaints filed with DOD's Employer
Support are "informal complaints," while complaints filed with the
Departments of Labor and Justice, and the Office of Special Counsel are
"formal" complaints. Regarding Labor's assertion that our report
categorizes all inquiries as complaints, we disagree. We were meticulous
in our requests for complaint data and very thorough in our analyses of
these data to ensure that inquiries for information and/or requests for
technical assistance were excluded from our complaint totals. Moreover,
Labor is incorrect in its assertion that the 9,975 informal complaints
filed by reservists with DOD's Employer Support represent "inquiries" and
serve to unnecessarily inflate the total number of USERRA complaints. We
were very careful to request from DOD's Employer Support only bona fide
USERRA complaints, and not inquiries for information. Upon receipt of the
data, we again confirmed with DOD that the data represented only valid
USERRA complaints. Our draft report, both in the narrative and a footnote,
clearly stipulated that the 9,975 complaints pertained only to complaints
related to USERRA violations, and not inquiries.
We are sending copies of this report to the Secretary of Defense; the
Secretary of Labor; the Attorney General; the Special Counsel; the
Secretaries of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force; the Commandant of
the Marine Corps; the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of staff; the Director,
Homeland Security; the Director, Office of Management and Budget; and
other interested congressional committees. We will also make copies
available to others upon request. In addition, the report will be
available at no charge on the GAO Web site at www.gao.gov .
If you or your staff have any questions about this report, please contact
me at (202) 512-5559 or [email protected] . Contact points for our
Offices of Congressional Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the
last page of this report. GAO staff who made major contributions to this
report are listed in appendix VII.
Sincerely yours,
Derek B. Stewart
Director, Defense Capabilities and Management
Appendix I: Scope and Methodology
To assess the status of the Department of Defense's (DOD) efforts to
capture data on employers of reservists, we gathered and analyzed data
provided by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve
Affairs from DOD's civilian employer information database as of August
2006. Specifically, we obtained employment-related data from the civilian
employment information file for about 758,000 selected reservists,
including categories such as those who were employed full or part time, a
student, a civilian volunteer, or not currently employed. The
approximately 70,000 reservists who were listed as Active Guard and
Reserve members were not included in the analysis. For reservists who
reported full- or part-time employment, we obtained and analyzed
information to identify reservists employed in private, public, or
education sector jobs. For private sector employment we obtained and
analyzed information on the type and size of business by number of
employees. We also obtained and analyzed data on the number of reservists
who reported self-employment and the business occupations involved. We
analyzed similar information to identify profiles of the employers of
reservists. To identify progress DOD had made in capturing employer
information, we reviewed agency policies, procedures, and processes for
reserve employment reporting, and obtained and analyzed data on the
percent of reporting compliance DOD and its reserve components had
achieved toward the established goals of 95 percent employer reporting for
members of the Selected Reserve and 75 percent employer reporting for
members of the Individual Ready Reserve and Inactive National Guard. We
also interviewed officials from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of
Defense for Reserve Affairs and Reserve Components about employer
reporting, data verification, and ongoing initiatives. In addition, we
interviewed members of reserve units about their employer reporting during
site visits.
To assess agencies' tracking and addressing of USERRA complaints,
including those related to disabilities incurred while on active duty, we
obtained information on all of the more than 16,000 total USERRA
complaints filed as informal complaints with DOD's Employer Support of the
Guard and Reserve and as formal complaints with the Department of Labor's
Veterans' Employment and Training Service, and the Office of Special
Counsel.1
1As previously noted, the Department of Justice is not authorized to
receive USERRA complaints directly from servicemembers. It represents
individuals involving private sector or state or local government
complaints that it receives from the Department of Labor.
We obtained and reviewed the results of the Department of Labor's
Assistant Secretary for Veterans' Employment and Training Service USERRA
Annual Report to Congress for fiscal years 2004 and 2005. Our testing
indicated that the data used to produce the report would be sufficiently
reliable for our purposes. In addition, we also obtained data on the
number of informal complaints reported to DOD's Employer Support between
fiscal years 2004 and 2006 to determine the number and types of complaints
that were being filed by reservists. We also analyzed data from the
Department of Justice and the Office of Special Counsel to determine the
number and type of USERRA referrals that were being handled by the agency.
In addition, we reviewed data from the Office of Special Counsel on the
number and type of cases handled under the demonstration project. We also
followed up on our 2005 report to determine whether the Secretary of
Defense, the Secretary of Labor, the Attorney General, and the Special
Counsel developed procedures or systems to allow the electronic transfer
of information between offices. In addition, to assess how efficiently and
effectively DOD's Employer Support, Department of Labor, Department of
Justice, and Office of Special Counsel addressed servicemember complaints,
we obtained and analyzed information about complaint-processing practices,
including applicable law, guidance, and operations manuals. We also
obtained and reviewed the memorandums of understanding between the
Department of Labor and DOD's Employer Support, the Department of Justice,
the Office of Special Counsel, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. We
discussed the agency data related to USERRA complaints and methods used to
collect these data with responsible agency officials from the following
offices:
o Department of Defense, Employer Support of the Guard and
Reserve, Arlington, Va.;
o Department of Defense, Office of the Assistant Secretary of
Defense for Reserve Affairs, Arlington, Va.;
o Defense Manpower Data Center, Arlington, Va. and Seaside,
Calif.;
o Department of Labor, Washington, D.C.;
o Department of Labor, Veterans Employment and Training Service,
Regional Office in Atlanta, Ga.;
o Department of Labor, Office of the Solicitor, Washington, D.C.;
Regional Office in Atlanta, Ga.;
o Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.;
o Office of Special Counsel, Washington, D.C.;
o U.S. Coast Guard Headquarters, Washington, D.C.; and
o Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, D.C.
In addition, we also contacted the following commands to obtain
information on component-specific USERRA and disability-related surveys
and initiatives: U.S. Army Reserve Command, Fort McPherson, Ga.; and
National Guard Bureau, Arlington, Va.
We obtained and analyzed similar information from these agencies for the
disability-related claims. Specifically, we imported data from the
Veterans' Employment and Training Service USERRA Information Management
System into an Access database and queried the data to look at the number
of formal disability-related complaints handled by the Department of Labor
between fiscal years 2004 and 2006. We also obtained data on the number of
informal disability-related complaints reported to DOD's Employer Support
between fiscal years 2004 and 2006. In addition, we reviewed data on
reservists wounded in action in Iraq and Afghanistan from October 7, 2001,
through October 14, 2006, and the number of reservists classified as
disabled by DOD between fiscal years 2003 and 2006. We also obtained
information about the Army Wounded Warrior Program.
We also discussed reserve employment issues with 8 of DOD's Employer
Support Ombudsmen from around the country. The 8 ombudsmen were selected
from a larger sample of 30 Ombudsmen drawn by DOD's Employer Support based
on our criteria, which included the Ombudsmen who had (1) handled the most
cases and/or (2) been ombudsman the longest, and (3) are geographically
dispersed. In addition, we held a total of 17 group discussions with over
100 reservists, which were stratified to include senior officers, junior
officers, and senior enlisted and junior enlisted members from units that
were previously activated to discuss their knowledge of USERRA and the
rights it provides them, reporting of employment information, and any
USERRA issues they may have experienced as a result of their activation.
These discussions included members from an Army National Guard unit, the
276th Engineering Battalion, at A.P. Hill, Va.; an Army Reserve unit, the
328th Combat Support Hospital, at Ft. Douglas, Utah; an Air Force Reserve
unit, the 446th Airlift Wing, at McChord AFB, Wash.; and a Marine Corps
Reserve unit, Headquarters Battery, 5th Battalion, 14th Regiment 4th
Marine Division at Seal Beach, Calif.
Also, we interviewed officials from the Army Emergency Relief organization
and the Air Force Aid Society on the type of assistance provided to
reservists awaiting resolution of a USERRA complaint. We also contacted
representatives from the following organizations to obtain information on
potential USERRA studies, and their views on reserve USERRA issues,
including those related to disabilities incurred while on active duty:
o Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, Washington, D.C.;
o Paralyzed Veterans of America, Washington, D.C.;
o The American Legion, Washington, D.C.;
o Vietnam Veterans of America, Silver Spring, Md.;
o Reserve Officers Association, Washington, D.C.; and
o Military Officers Association of America, Alexandria, Va.
We assessed the reliability of reported reservist employer data from DOD's
civilian employment information database, and reserve USERRA complaint
data from DOD's Employer Support, Department of Labor's Veterans'
Employment and Training Service, Department of Justice, and the Office of
Special Counsel. We used a variety of methods to accomplish this
assessment including electronic testing of the Department of Labor's
USERRA data and interviewing officials regarding their data quality
protocols. As a result of this, we determined that data from the
Department of Justice and the Office of Special Counsel were sufficiently
reliable for our purposes. In addition, our limited testing of the
Department of Labor's data also showed that the data were sufficiently
reliable for purposes of this report. However, an ongoing review within
our agency continues to assess the Department of Labor's USERRA data.
DOD's civilian employment information and DOD' Employer Support databases
were found to be of undeterminable reliability. The validity of the
employer data depends, on (1) the accuracy of the reservists' entries and
(2) the verification algorithm used by the private company that DOD has an
arrangement with for providing business-related details. Some data entry
checks occur at the Reserve unit level and at the Defense Manpower Data
Center. The private company's business name-matching algorithm is
multistepped and was not subject to our evaluation. Data that are matched
are assigned a confidence code of 1 to 10 with 7-10 considered as high
confidence of the match, 5-6 considered as medium, and 4 considered as low
and suggesting the likelihood of inaccurate automated matching. Somewhat
more than 9 percent of the matches fall into the last category, and almost
20 percent of the entries in the recently reported set of reservists found
no matches at all. In addition, small businesses in general such as
doctors, lawyers, accountants, and carpenters are far less likely to be
captured in the matching process. As such, we report the numbers from the
employer database for suggestive purposes, but they should not be regarded
as definitive.
For DOD's Employer Support data, we did not directly test the complaint
data, but the Oracle integrity constraints serve some data reliability
purposes. However, after data are entered there are no agency spot checks,
systematic reviews, or exception reports. As such, the reliability of
these data is undetermined and we use these data to simply characterize
the complaints and to suggest the ratios among those complaints.
We conducted our work from April 2006 through December 2006 in accordance
with generally accepted government auditing standards.
Appendix II: Profiles on Reservists' Civilian Employment
Tables 6 through 10 provide civilian employment details for approximately
758,000 Selected Reservists, excluding the Active Guard and Reserve. The
data represent information reported by reservists from the Department of
Defense's (DOD) civilian employment database as of August 2006. According
to a DOD official, all employer information has not been fully verified by
DOD, however the data are the best information available on reservists'
civilian employment. Appendix III provides information on the employers of
reservists. Table 6 shows the reservists' civilian employment status by
full-time, part-time, civilian volunteer, student, not employed, and
unknown categories by DOD total and by each reserve component.
Table 6: Reported Civilian Employment Status of Selected Reservists by DOD
and its Reserve Components
Army Coast Air Air Marine
Employment DOD National Army Guard National Force Corps Navy
status total Guard Reserve Reserve Guard Reserve Reserve Reserve
Full-time 418,917 150,928 104,864 3,392 59,721 47,298 12,586 40,128
Part-time 34,679 15,226 6,241 238 5,236 2,973 2,739 2,026
Civilian
volunteer 988 334 287 10 148 148 26 35
Student 61,798 33,717 16,134 347 5,775 2,944 1,343 1,538
Not
employed 129,720 75,218 34,020 1,913 3,440 4,535 6,777 3,817
Unknown a 112,080 40,655 13,355 2,052 17,986 14,253 13,804 9,975
Total 758,182 316,078 174,901 7,952 92,306 72,151 37,275 57,519
Source: DOD's Civilian Employment Information Database.
aUnknown includes cases where reservists have not filled out the civilian
employment information profile.
Table 7 shows the breakout for the 453,596 reservists reporting full-time
or part-time civilian employment by the sector they are employed including
private sector, state and local government, education, and federal
government for DOD and its reserve components. It also includes
information as unknown for those cases where a reservist has reported
employment information but either the information did not match with
verification checks or a standard industrial classification code was
missing.
Table 7: Selected Reservists Reporting Full-Time or Part-Time Civilian
Employment by Employment Sector for DOD and Its Reserve Components
Army Coast Air Air Marine
Employment DOD National Army Guard National Force Corps Navy
sector total Guard Reserve Reserve Guard Reserve Reserve Reserve
Private
sector 181,438 63,866 51,612 1,120 18,339 18,226 4,724 23,551
State and
local
government 48,794 21,446 11,229 659 6,323 4,228 797 4,112
Education 13,374 4,169 4,523 123 1,494 1,285 216 1,564
Unknowna 108,125 44,621 26,192 920 11,511 8,760 8,770 7,351
Federal
government 101,865 32,052 17,549 808 27,290 17,772 818 5,576
Total 453,596 166,154 111,105 3,630 64,957 50,271 15,325 42,154
Source: DOD's Civilian Employment Information Database.
aUnknown includes cases where a match was not found, or the employer match
was found and the standard industrial classification code was missing to
identify the employment sector.
Table 8 shows the number of selected reservists who have reported
full-time or part-time civilian employment in the private sector by
employer size defined by its number of employees for DOD and each reserve
component. These data also include an unknown category where employer
information was partially verified but incomplete information was
available to determine company size.
Table 8: Number of Selected Reservists Reporting Full-Time or Part-Time
Private Civilian Employment by Employer Size for DOD and Its Reserve
Components
Army Coast Air Air Marine
Private DOD National Army Guard National Force Corps Navy
employer size total Guard Reserve Reserve Guard Reserve Reserve Reserve
1-4 29,071 10,316 9,301 207 2,480 2,273 809 3,685
5-9 10,407 3,845 3,123 75 1,021 774 307 1,262
10-19 10,347 4,144 2,840 71 948 831 287 1,226
20-49 13,809 5,393 3,908 91 1,320 1090 381 1,626
50-99 9,141 3,559 2,528 44 840 792 253 1,125
100-249 10,189 3,863 2,805 64 988 889 271 1,309
250-499 6,710 2,558 1,858 40 601 629 147 877
500-1,000 6,474 2,323 1,881 29 663 650 144 784
1000-9999 26,087 8,487 7,582 158 2,755 2,982 514 3,609
10,000-99,999 33,764 10,558 9,004 197 3,916 4,483 836 4,770
100,000+ 19,917 6,665 5,275 108 2,284 2,336 630 2,619
Unknown a 5,522 2,155 1,507 36 523 497 145 659
Total 181,438 63,866 51,612 1,120 18,339 18,226 4,724 23,551
Source: DOD's Civilian Employment Information Database.
aUnknown includes cases where there was incomplete information on the
company size.
Table 9 shows the 23,871 DOD reservists reporting self-employment by the
occupation groups in which they work. There are also some unknown amounts
in this chart for where incomplete information was available on the
business to determine the occupation of the self-employed reservist.
Table 9: Number of Selected Reservists in DOD Reporting Self-Employment by
Occupation Code and Description
Self-employed occupation code Occupation group description DOD total
11 Management 3,635
13 Business and financial operations 1,474
15 Computer and mathematical 649
17 Architecture and engineering 617
19 Life, physical, and social science 207
21 Community and social services 564
23 Legal 1,205
25 Education, training, and library 450
27 Arts, design, entertainment,
sports, and media 794
29 Healthcare practitioners and
technical 2,261
31 Healthcare support 232
33 Protective service 1,169
35 Food preparation and serving
related 269
37 Building and grounds cleaning and
maintenance 466
39 Personal care and service 454
41 Sales and related 2,046
43 Office and administrative support 463
45 Farming, fishing, and forestry 446
47 Construction and extraction 3,082
49 Installation, maintenance, and
repair 1,762
51 Production 578
53 Transportation and material moving 967
Unknowna 81
Total 23,871
Source: DOD's Civilian Employment Information Database.
aUnknown includes cases where there was incomplete information on these
businesses.
Table 10 provides details on the number of selected reservists in each
reserve component reporting self-employment by occupation code.
Table 10: Number of Selected Reservists in each Reserve Component
Reporting Self-Employment by Standard Occupation Code and Description
Standard Occupation Army Coast Air Air Marine
occupation group National Army Guard National Force Corps Navy
code description Guard Reserve Reserve Guard Reserve Reserve Reserve
11 Management 700 1,312 55 314 362 65 827
13 Business and
financial
operations 261 699 16 126 145 64 163
15 Computer and
mathematical 130 270 1 78 70 28 72
17 Architecture
and
engineering 97 258 7 54 65 17 119
19 Life,
physical, and
social science 20 131 0 16 14 7 19
21 Community and
social
services 87 283 5 61 91 4 33
23 Legal 192 736 4 63 80 39 91
25 Education,
training, and
library 97 220 1 56 47 9 20
27 Arts, design,
entertainment,
sports, and
media 106 488 5 71 54 26 44
29 Healthcare
practitioners
and technical 245 1,244 2 262 322 4 182
31 Healthcare
support 66 83 1 30 41 5 6
33 Protective
service 470 312 7 169 139 45 27
35 Food
preparation
and serving
related 95 80 2 41 30 18 3
37 Building and
grounds
cleaning and
maintenance 165 196 4 44 25 22 10
39 Personal care
and service 79 265 1 39 53 7 10
41 Sales and
related 442 946 6 233 243 109 67
43 Office and
administrative
support 114 209 2 55 55 16 12
45 Farming,
fishing, and
forestry 169 155 1 45 37 27 12
47 Construction
and extraction 923 1,505 18 224 184 155 73
49 Installation,
maintenance,
and repair 582 482 8 383 217 61 29
51 Production 162 251 7 71 58 16 13
53 Transportation
and material
moving 335 243 6 161 163 31 28
Unknowna 4 12 1 4 0 44 16
Total 5,541 10,380 160 2,600 2,495 819 1,876
Source: DOD's Civilian Employment Information Database.
aUnknown includes cases where there was incomplete information on these
businesses.
Appendix III: Profiles on Employers of Reservists
Tables 11 through 16 provide details on the employers of reservists in the
Selected Reserve from Department of Defense's (DOD) civilian employment
information program. All employer data are as of August 2006. Although all
employer information has not been fully verified by DOD, it considers the
data to be the best information available on employers of reservists. The
data represent unique employers of reservists; thus a company that employs
more than one reservist is counted only once. Table 11 shows a breakout of
the 113,478 civilian employers of reservists employed full-time or
part-time by federal and nonfederal sectors for DOD and its reserve
components. Information on reservists' civilian employment is contained in
appendix II.
Table 11: Reported Employers of Reservists by Employment Sector, for DOD
and Its Reserve Components
Army Coast Air Air Marine
All National Army Guard National Force Corps Navy
employers DOD Guard Reserve Reserve Guard Reserve Reserve Reserve
Private 88,452 36,912 30,346 983 10,631 10,040 3,543 14,540
sector
State & 9,801 4,597 3,802 385 1,616 1,413 506 1,776
local
government
Education 5,796 2,516 2,526 116 1,036 860 189 1,110
Unknowna 9,356 7,695 156 7 2,190 1,289 3 65
Federal 73 47 62 25 38 48 30 52
agencies
Total 113,478 51,767 36,892 1,516 15,511 13,650 4,271 17,543
Source: DOD's Civilian Employment Information Database.
aUnknown means that the reported employer information matched, but no
valid standard industrial classification code was available to identify
employment sector.
Table 12 shows the details for the 88,452 reported employers of reservists
in the private sector by employer size defined by number of employees by
DOD and each reserve component.
Table 12: Reported Private Employers of Reservists by Number of Employees
by DOD and Its Reserve Components
Employer size Army Coast Air Air Marine
by number of National Army Guard National Force Corps Navy
employees DOD Guard Reserve Reserve Guard Reserve Reserve Reserve
1-4 24,958 9,166 8,146 203 2,205 2,107 791 3,446
5-9 9,283 3,554 2,826 73 898 728 303 1,210
10-19 9,055 3,628 2,564 68 881 785 283 1,194
20-49 11,933 4,891 3,440 91 1,224 1,015 373 1,530
50-99 7,590 3,120 2,262 42 798 723 243 1,042
100-249 7,715 3,241 2,426 63 872 824 268 1,195
250-499 4,233 1,932 1,506 39 505 538 140 741
500-1,000 3,107 1,463 1,344 30 512 509 133 656
1000-9999 5,130 3,118 3,400 144 1,482 1,572 421 2,043
10,000-99,999 876 733 870 148 626 643 358 754
100,000+ 67 62 74 40 61 67 68 76
Unknowna 4,505 2,004 1,488 42 567 529 162 653
Total 88,452 36,912 30,346 983 10,631 10,040 3,543 14,540
Source: DOD's Civilian Employment Information Database.
aUnknown means those cases where there was incomplete information on the
company size.
Table 13 shows the 88,452 private employers reported by DOD's reservists
by two-digit standard industrial classification code. In this depiction,
the most employers of reservists are in heath services, business services,
and special trade contractor areas.
Table 13: Reported Number of Private Employers of DOD's Reservists by
Two-Digit Standard Industrial Classification Code
1987 U.S. Standard industrial classification
SIC (SIC) code description Number of employers
01 Agricultural production- crops 441
02 Agricultural production- livestock 243
07 Agricultural services 1,084
08 Forestry 67
09 Fishing, hunting, and trapping 15
10 Metal mining 18
12 Coal mining 38
13 Oil and gas extraction 240
14 Nonmetallic minerals, except fuels 92
15 General building contractors 2,671
16 Heavy construction contractors 887
17 Special trade contractors 5,795
20 Food and kindred products 609
21 Tobacco manufactures 6
22 Textile mill products 148
23 Apparel and other textile products 152
24 Lumber and wood products 623
25 Furniture and fixtures 252
26 Paper and allied products 259
27 Printing and publishing 755
28 Chemicals and allied products 491
29 Petroleum and coal products 84
30 Rubber and miscellaneous plastics products 538
31 Leather and leather products 19
32 Stone, clay, glass, and concrete products 429
33 Primary metal industries 366
34 Fabricated metal products 1,069
35 Industrial machinery and equipment 1,422
36 Electrical and electronic equipment 690
37 Transportation equipment 626
38 Instruments and related products 472
39 Miscellaneous manufacturing industries 370
40 Railroad transportation 86
41 Local and interurban passenger transit 775
42 Motor freight transportation and warehousing 1,767
43 U.S. Postal Service 1
44 Water transportation 165
45 Transportation by air 503
46 Pipelines, except natural gas 8
47 Transportation services 610
48 Communications 952
49 Electric, gas, and sanitary services 790
50 Wholesale trade--durable goods 3,713
51 Wholesale trade--nondurable goods 1,675
52 Building materials, hardware, garden supply, & 872
mobile home
53 General merchandise stores 252
54 Food stores 1,303
55 Automotive dealers and gasoline service stations 2,783
56 Apparel and accessory stores 476
57 Furniture, home furnishings and equipment stores 1,157
58 Eating and drinking places 5,273
59 Miscellaneous retail 2,701
60 Depository institutions 1,052
61 Nondepository credit institutions 643
62 Security, commodity brokers, and services 323
63 Insurance carriers 361
64 Insurance agents, brokers, and service 1,036
65 Real estate 2,287
67 Holding and other investment offices 363
70 Hotels, rooming houses, camps, and other lodging 979
places
72 Personal services 1,189
73 Business services 7,456
75 Automotive repair, services, and parking 1,773
76 Miscellaneous repair services 839
78 Motion pictures 251
79 Amusement and recreational services 1,532
80 Health services 8,569
81 Legal services 1,736
82 Educational services 0
83 Social services 2,548
84 Museums, art galleries, botanical & zoological 122
gardens
86 Membership organizations 2,941
87 Engineering and management services 5,134
88 Private households 0
89 Miscellaneous services 485
Total 88,452
Source: DOD's Civilian Employment Information Database.
Table 14 shows the number of private employers reported by reservists by
two-digit standard industrial classification code by reserve component.
Table 14: Reported Number of Private Employers of Reservists by Two-Digit
Standard Industrial Classification Code by Reserve Component
1987 U.S.
Standard
industrial
classification Army Coast Air Air Marine
code (SIC) National Army Guard National Force Corps Navy
SIC description Guard Reserve Reserve Guard Reserve Reserve Reserve
01 Agricultural
production- crops 237 117 5 38 18 7 32
02 Agricultural
production-
livestock 148 58 0 11 16 5 20
07 Agricultural
services 465 343 11 95 73 40 103
08 Forestry 32 16 3 8 5 1 8
09 Fishing, hunting,
and trapping 9 2 0 1 0 1 2
10 Metal mining 14 4 0 5 1 1 4
12 Coal mining 23 15 0 7 3 1 1
13 Oil and gas
extraction 145 72 2 24 18 21 28
14 Nonmetallic
minerals, except
fuels 52 29 0 9 11 1 9
15 General building
contractors 1,174 801 24 248 153 116 340
16 Heavy
construction
contractors 480 221 6 81 88 31 114
17 Special trade
contractors 2,617 1588 54 556 375 228 756
20 Food and kindred
products 322 241 3 98 70 38 117
21 Tobacco
manufactures 3 5 0 0 2 0 1
22 Textile mill
products 91 52 1 17 10 5 23
23 Apparel and other
textile products 63 54 0 13 17 6 25
24 Lumber and wood
products 383 179 5 46 44 14 71
25 Furniture and
fixtures 137 83 3 33 27 10 37
26 Paper and allied
products 140 109 4 37 38 14 51
27 Printing and
publishing 321 271 9 78 86 27 149
28 Chemicals and
allied products 246 204 14 96 93 29 138
29 Petroleum and
coal products 29 33 0 17 16 3 21
30 Rubber and
miscellaneous
plastics products 304 208 3 68 58 18 75
31 Leather and
leather products 9 7 0 2 1 2 5
32 Stone, clay,
glass, and
concrete products 232 154 6 47 33 15 64
33 Primary metal
industries 212 151 3 43 47 17 83
34 Fabricated metal
products 566 355 5 131 90 49 171
35 Industrial
machinery and
equipment 670 441 19 206 177 64 285
36 Electrical and
electronic
equipment 271 259 11 133 127 41 213
37 Transportation
equipment 360 227 18 109 112 34 135
38 Instruments and
related products 168 161 9 85 110 33 141
39 Miscellaneous
manufacturing
industries 157 118 2 37 40 15 58
40 Railroad
transportation 46 31 2 20 11 6 15
41 Local and
interurban
passenger transit 347 258 21 105 119 21 160
42 Motor freight
transportation
and warehousing 921 622 11 172 168 68 255
43 U.S. Postal
Service 1 1 2 1 1 1 1
44 Water
transportation 67 46 28 17 13 7 45
45 Transportation by
air 180 121 12 176 167 40 150
46 Pipelines, except
natural gas 6 4 1 3 2 1 2
47 Transportation
services 232 227 4 86 73 16 97
48 Communications 320 326 16 214 133 67 215
49 Electric, gas,
and sanitary
services 399 293 21 165 128 33 220
50 Wholesale
trade--durable
goods 1,534 1123 32 504 397 190 641
51 Wholesale
trade--nondurable
goods 777 569 17 172 151 80 279
52 Building
materials,
hardware, garden
supply, & mobile
home 473 216 10 78 53 41 87
53 General
merchandise
stores 128 91 7 48 40 23 44
54 Food stores 726 436 8 119 107 65 127
55 Automotive
dealers and
gasoline service
stations 1,372 827 38 270 201 130 297
56 Apparel and
accessory stores 203 207 5 57 71 40 72
57 Furniture, home
furnishings and
equipment stores 501 391 11 119 92 61 150
58 Eating and
drinking places 2,901 1,723 28 429 294 223 366
59 Miscellaneous
retail 1113 919 21 305 296 134 395
60 Depository
institutions 414 398 22 185 155 46 213
61 Nondepository
credit
institutions 216 229 12 84 69 37 122
62 Security,
commodity
brokers, and
services 107 122 7 49 51 20 88
63 Insurance
carriers 149 174 13 82 86 16 107
64 Insurance agents,
brokers, and
service 326 393 6 121 118 38 170
65 Real estate 780 759 29 232 214 73 390
67 Holding and other
investment
offices 118 109 4 51 47 16 68
70 Hotels, rooming
houses, camps,
and other lodging
places 468 323 11 112 106 49 127
72 Personal services 466 418 7 113 97 34 148
73 Business services 2,758 2,642 87 879 963 340 1,399
75 Automotive
repair, services,
and parking 854 513 18 142 113 87 198
76 Miscellaneous
repair services 339 240 7 103 75 34 140
78 Motion pictures 108 83 8 35 24 20 35
79 Amusement and
recreational
services 701 499 19 149 145 86 183
80 Health services 2,538 3,773 57 1,210 1,597 92 1,830
81 Legal services 409 752 22 141 161 60 338
82 Educational
services 0 0 0 0 0 0
83 Social services 990 947 27 276 294 46 349
84 Museums, art
galleries,
botanical &
zoological
gardens 43 45 4 11 14 2 15
86 Membership
organizations 999 939 35 407 399 57 473
87 Engineering and
management
services 1,625 1821 69 756 799 236 1,170
88 Private
households 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
89 Miscellaneous
services 177 158 4 54 37 20 79
Total 36,912 30,346 983 10,631 10,040 3,543 14,540
Source: DOD's Civilian Employment Information Database.
Table 15 shows the number of small private employers (with less than 50
employees) reported by DOD's reservists by two-digit standard industrial
classification code.
Table 15: Industries of Reported Small (Less than 50 Employees) Private
Employers of DOD's Reservists, by Two-Digit Standard Industrial
Classification Code
1987 U.S. Standard industrial classification
SIC (SIC) code description Number of employers
01 Agricultural production- crops 389
02 Agricultural production- livestock 205
07 Agricultural services 983
08 Forestry 48
09 Fishing, hunting, and trapping 13
10 Metal mining 7
12 Coal mining 8
13 Oil and gas extraction 122
14 Nonmetallic minerals, except fuels 34
15 General building contractors 2,134
16 Heavy construction contractors 457
17 Special trade contractors 4,396
20 Food and kindred products 136
21 Tobacco manufactures 0
22 Textile mill products 33
23 Apparel and other textile products 70
24 Lumber and wood products 276
25 Furniture and fixtures 90
26 Paper and allied products 51
27 Printing and publishing 347
28 Chemicals and allied products 100
29 Petroleum and coal products 23
30 Rubber and miscellaneous plastics products 115
31 Leather and leather products 7
32 Stone, clay, glass, and concrete products 130
33 Primary metal industries 76
34 Fabricated metal products 334
35 Industrial machinery and equipment 565
36 Electrical and electronic equipment 197
37 Transportation equipment 145
38 Instruments and related products 155
39 Miscellaneous manufacturing industries 231
40 Railroad transportation 29
41 Local and interurban passenger transit 295
42 Motor freight transportation and warehousing 882
43 U.S. Postal Service 0
44 Water transportation 65
45 Transportation by air 235
46 Pipelines, except natural gas 3
47 Transportation services 407
48 Communications 435
49 Electric, gas, and sanitary services 286
50 Wholesale trade--durable goods 1,961
51 Wholesale trade--nondurable goods 743
52 Building materials, hardware, garden supply, &
mobile home 571
53 General merchandise stores 130
54 Food stores 770
55 Automotive dealers and gasoline service stations 1,413
56 Apparel and accessory stores 286
57 Furniture, home furnishings and equipment stores 803
58 Eating and drinking places 2,572
59 Miscellaneous retail 1,972
60 Depository institutions 320
61 Nondepository credit institutions 383
62 Security, commodity brokers, and services 195
63 Insurance carriers 78
64 Insurance agents, brokers, and service 805
65 Real estate 1,590
67 Holding and other investment offices 257
70 Hotels, rooming houses, camps, and other lodging
places 346
72 Personal services 973
73 Business services 4,833
75 Automotive repair, services, and parking 1,474
76 Miscellaneous repair services 654
78 Motion pictures 163
79 Amusement and recreational services 973
80 Health services 4,282
81 Legal services 1,236
82 Educational services 0
83 Social services 1,300
84 Museums, art galleries, botanical & zoological
gardens 71
86 Membership organizations 2,291
87 Engineering and management services 2,963
88 Private households 0
89 Miscellaneous services 454
Total 51,376
Source: DOD's Civilian Employment Information Database.
Table 16 shows the number of reported small private employers (with less
than 50 employees) of reservists by two-digit standard industrial
classification code by reserve component.
Table 16: Reported Number of Private Employers of Reservists by Two-Digit
Standard Industrial Classification Code and Reserve Component
1987 U.S.
Standard
industrial
classification Army Coast Air Air Marine
code (SIC) National Army Guard National Force Corps Navy
SIC description Guard Reserve Reserve Guard Reserve Reserve Reserve
01 Agricultural
production- crops 204 102 2 33 16 5 30
02 Agricultural
production-
livestock 121 45 0 9 14 4 13
07 Agricultural
services 416 300 9 82 66 33 85
08 Forestry 24 10 1 6 2 1 5
09 Fishing, hunting,
and trapping 8 2 0 1 0 0 2
10 Metal mining 4 1 0 1 0 0 1
12 Coal mining 5 3 0 1 0 0 0
13 Oil and gas
extraction 67 27 0 11 7 5 8
14 Nonmetallic
minerals, except
fuels 18 8 0 1 2 1 4
15 General building
contractors 942 606 17 176 111 81 231
16 Heavy
construction
contractors 248 106 4 33 41 12 37
17 Special trade
contractors 1,988 1,158 45 380 254 168 490
20 Food and kindred
products 60 47 0 9 7 4 14
21 Tobacco
manufactures 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
22 Textile mill
products 12 10 0 5 1 2 3
23 Apparel and other
textile products 24 26 0 7 3 4 9
24 Lumber and wood
products 162 62 2 14 12 6 22
25 Furniture and
fixtures 43 19 1 8 8 4 9
26 Paper and allied
products 23 12 0 2 6 3 6
27 Printing and
publishing 132 106 6 27 27 11 50
28 Chemicals and
allied products 42 23 0 6 9 2 22
29 Petroleum and
coal products 8 9 0 1 5 0 3
30 Rubber and
miscellaneous
plastics products 47 41 0 8 6 4 13
31 Leather and
leather products 2 2 0 0 0 2 2
32 Stone, clay,
glass, and
concrete products 60 39 2 10 6 6 12
33 Primary metal
industries 26 29 0 6 5 1 11
34 Fabricated metal
products 159 81 1 26 13 20 46
35 Industrial
machinery and
equipment 236 149 1 52 41 25 81
36 Electrical and
electronic
equipment 64 49 1 24 25 6 40
37 Transportation
equipment 74 29 3 16 18 5 16
38 Instruments and
related products 43 36 1 17 28 7 36
39 Miscellaneous
manufacturing
industries 97 69 1 23 15 7 29
40 Railroad
transportation 14 8 0 4 5 0 5
41 Local and
interurban
passenger transit 124 76 6 32 26 8 40
42 Motor freight
transportation
and warehousing 426 246 4 60 50 25 108
43 U.S. Postal
Service 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
44 Water
transportation 22 15 11 5 4 1 9
45 Transportation by
air 70 42 4 57 55 10 44
46 Pipelines, except
natural gas 2 1 0 0 0 0 0
47 Transportation
services 147 139 2 54 39 11 50
48 Communications 133 119 2 80 42 17 73
49 Electric, gas,
and sanitary
services 130 73 1 38 20 4 38
50 Wholesale
trade--durable
goods 768 531 13 209 151 74 279
51 Wholesale
trade--nondurable
goods 319 217 4 54 59 21 96
52 Building
materials,
hardware, garden
supply, & mobile
home 297 133 4 49 31 23 43
53 General
merchandise
stores 60 32 1 20 13 4 13
54 Food stores 388 229 0 55 46 24 61
55 Automotive
dealers and
gasoline service
stations 671 371 15 120 97 52 123
56 Apparel and
accessory stores 103 109 1 22 27 9 24
57 Furniture, home
furnishings and
equipment stores 334 250 4 73 49 32 82
58 Eating and
drinking places 1,394 741 11 153 109 101 150
59 Miscellaneous
retail 766 622 10 178 171 77 250
60 Depository
institutions 127 93 6 52 26 11 46
61 Nondepository
credit
institutions 118 125 5 39 31 16 63
62 Security,
commodity
brokers, and
services 52 60 2 23 24 6 40
63 Insurance
carriers 30 24 3 8 10 0 12
64 Insurance agents,
brokers, and
service 242 295 5 83 71 28 112
65 Real estate 506 537 20 153 121 41 251
67 Holding and other
investment
offices 88 67 3 33 31 12 37
70 Hotels, rooming
houses, camps,
and other lodging
places 152 104 0 28 22 8 42
72 Personal services 358 340 5 84 71 28 110
73 Business services 1,663 1600 42 459 468 172 769
75 Automotive
repair, services,
and parking 706 413 11 100 75 59 143
76 Miscellaneous
repair services 265 176 6 69 45 23 92
78 Motion pictures 67 46 4 16 11 10 23
79 Amusement and
recreational
services 403 313 5 72 79 47 99
80 Health services 994 1618 19 500 598 36 775
81 Legal services 301 526 18 90 93 34 210
82 Educational
services 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
83 Social services 439 492 16 131 123 19 161
84 Museums, art
galleries,
botanical &
zoological
gardens 26 23 2 7 6 2 10
86 Membership
organizations 760 704 23 301 286 35 353
87 Engineering and
management
services 891 925 23 326 330 101 553
88 Private
households 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
89 Miscellaneous
services 167 147 3 48 32 16 70
Total 19,882 15,788 411 4,880 4,295 1,626 6,789
Source: DOD's Civilian Employment Information Database.
Appendix IV: Comments from the Department of Defense
Appendix V: Comments from the Department of Labor
Appendix VI: Comments from the Office of Special Counsel
Appendix VII: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments
GAO Contact
Derek B. Stewart (202) 512-5559
Acknowledgments
James Bancroft, Sean Bell, Tracy Burney, Susan Ditto,
Laura Durland, K. Nicole Harms, Kenya Jones, Jeanett Reid, Gina Ruidera,
Joseph Rutecki, Jerry Sandau, Jay Smale Jr., Norris Smith, and Vasiliki
Theodoropoulos also made significant contributions to the report.
(350858)
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Highlights of [53]GAO-07-259 , a report to congressional committees
February 2007
MILITARY PERSONNEL
Additional Actions Needed to Improve Oversight of Reserve Employment
Issues
Since September 11, 2001, the Department of Defense (DOD) has mobilized
more than 500,000 reservists. As reservists demobilize, concerns exist
about difficulties with their civilian employment. Public Law 109-163
required GAO to report on reservists' civilian employer data and
employment matters. GAO assessed (1) the status of DOD's efforts to
capture reservists' employer data; (2) DOD, Labor, Justice, and Office of
Special Counsel processes to track and address reservists' USERRA
complaints; and (3) the four federal agencies' efforts to track
reservists' USERRA complaints related to disabilities incurred while on
active duty. GAO reviewed policies and procedures for reporting and
tracking complaints; DOD's civilian employer database for reservists and
reservists' USERRA complaints; and data reliability and quality checks.
[54]What GAO Recommends
To improve oversight of reservists' complaints, Congress should consider
changing the law to require Labor's annual report to include DOD complaint
data; DOD should improve its reporting of employer information; Labor
should make aggregate complaint data available to DOD; and agencies should
adopt uniform data elements, and track disability-related USERRA
complaints. In commenting on a draft of this report, DOD, Labor, and
Office of Special Counsel generally agreed with GAO's recommendations.
Justice had no agency comments.
DOD has made progress in capturing employment information on reservists,
but challenges remain. The percent of reservists reporting employer
information increased from about 60 percent in August 2005 to about 77
percent as of August 2006. However, only one of seven reserve components
has met DOD's employment reporting goal of 95 percent for the Selected
Reserve-the largest category of reservists. DOD does not have specific
time frames for reserve components to achieve the reporting goals. In
addition, some employment information reported may not be current because
the services have not established a formal mechanism to remind reservists
to update their reported employment information. Finally, DOD's
verification process is not adequate to verify civilian employer data for
24 percent of reservists that reported employer information.
The four federal agencies responsible for assisting reservists with USERRA
complaints--DOD, the departments of Labor and Justice, and the Office of
Special Counsel--track and address these complaints. Between fiscal years
2004 and 2006, the four agencies addressed approximately 16,000 informal
and formal complaints. However, no one agency has total visibility over
all the complaints, and only a small percentage of complaints are reported
to Congress. For example, DOD has visibility over all complaints in its
system, but its visibility over complaints in Labor's system is limited to
those originally filed with DOD and then later refiled with Labor. The
Department of Labor does not make aggregate complaint data available to
DOD. Furthermore, Labor's annual report to Congress on reservists'
complaints for fiscal years 2004 and 2005 did not include almost 10,000
informal complaints filed with DOD, or 80 percent of the total informal
and formal complaints addressed by the four agencies during this period.
Labor is required to report formal complaints addressed by the three
agencies, but not DOD. Consequently, Congress does not have the
comprehensive information necessary to allow for complete oversight of
reservists' employment and reemployment problems. Finally, the information
GAO obtained on the approximately 16,000 reservists' complaints filed
between fiscal years 2004 and 2006 showed that the nature of those
complaints has not been uniformly categorized to completely reveal trends
in the kinds of problems some returning reservists experience because the
agencies use different complaint categories to characterize the
complaints.
Agencies responsible for assisting reservists with USERRA issues can not
systematically record and track disability-related employment complaints
because they do not use consistent and compatible complaint categories or
have a mechanism in place for distinguishing disability-related complaints
from others. Without the ability to track disabled reservists' USERRA
complaints, DOD may be unaware of the effect disabilities incurred while
on active duty have on reservists' employment and what additional
assistance may be needed to help transition this population back into the
workforce.
References
Visible links
30. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-02-608
31. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-60
32. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO/AIMD-00-21.3.1
34. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-02-608
35. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-1031
36. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-962
37. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-03-921
38. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO/AIMD-00-21.3.1
39. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-60
40. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO/AIMD-00-21.3.1
41. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-02-608
42. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-06-397
43. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-287
53. http://www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-07-259
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