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
*** End of document. ***