A more thorough explanation:

The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) is a law that protects military members from discrimination by their employers for their military participation. It also requires employers to rehire some employees who become deployed.

USERRA’s main purpose is to prevent employers from discriminating against military employees. This means that employers cannot fire them, keep them from getting promotions, or make their job more difficult than others in similar roles. If an employer takes any discriminatory action against a military employee, it will be considered a violation of the Act if the military service was a “motivating factor” of the action.

For example, if an employer fires an employee because they are in the military, that would be a violation of USERRA.

Employees who experience discrimination may have different remedies, such as an injunction against being fired for a period of time or monetary damages. Most claims are informally resolved through the Secretary of Labor, but employees may bring a claim in court themselves or potentially through arbitration.

Another important provision of USERRA requires employers to rehire most veterans after they return from service. The employee must be rehired at a position and pay equal to what they had before they left. This means some employers must rehire the employees on better terms than they left.

For example, if an employee was making $50,000 a year before they left for military service and the company gave raises while they were gone, the employee must be rehired at the new salary.

To qualify for this treatment, a veteran must have given the employer proper notice of future uniformed service and must start employment again soon after finishing service. This does not apply for employees who are in uniformed services for less than 32 days. Those who are in service for 32-180 cannot be fired by the employer after returning for at least 180 days with certain exceptions and a year for those that are in service for more than 180 days.

For example, if an employee is in the military for 6 months, they cannot be fired by their employer for at least a year after they return.

There are exceptions that may disqualify an employee. An employee cannot be in service more than five years with the same employer and still be guaranteed employment after service. Further, an employer may not have to rehire an employee when they can prove that rehiring is no longer possible because of changes in the business or major financial difficulties prevent them doing so.

For example, if a company goes out of business while an employee is in the military, the employer cannot rehire them because the job no longer exists.

The standard for this exception is unclear but essentially requires the reemployment to be highly impractical for the employer.