PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

§416 Rights and Protections Relating to Veterans’ Employment and Reemployment

Title 3 › CHAPTER 5 — EXTENSION OF CERTAIN RIGHTS AND PROTECTIONS TO PRESIDENTIAL OFFICES › SUBCHAPTER II — EXTENSION OF RIGHTS AND PROTECTIONS › Part A — Employment Discrimination, Family and Medical Leave, Fair Labor Standards, Employee Polygraph Protection, Worker Adjustment and Retraining, Employment and Reemployment of Veterans, and Intimidation › § 416

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

Protects people who serve in the uniformed services by making it illegal for an employing office to treat them unfairly, refuse to return them to their jobs, or deny certain federal employment benefits. The law ties those protections to rules in title 38: discrimination rules in sections 4311(a) and (b), reemployment rights in 4312 and 4313, and benefits in 4316–4318. Eligible employee — a covered worker serving in the uniformed services under section 4303(13) of title 38 whose service hasn’t ended for the reasons listed in section 4304. If the rules are broken, the worker can get damages like those under section 4323(d) of title 38. The President or a designee must write rules to carry out the law. Those rules should follow the Secretary of Labor’s rules unless there is good cause to change them. The protections start on the earlier of the rules’ effective date or October 1, 1998.

Title 3, §416

The President, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Employment and Reemployment Rights of Members of the Uniformed Services.—

(1)In general.—

It shall be unlawful for an employing office to—

(A)discriminate, within the meaning of subsections (a) and (b) of section 4311 of title 38, against an eligible employee;

(B)deny to an eligible employee reemployment rights within the meaning of section 4312 and 4313 of title 38; or

(C)deny to an eligible employee benefits within the meaning of section 4316, 4317, and 4318 of title 38.

(2)Definition.—

For purposes of this section, the term “eligible employee” means a covered employee performing service in the uniformed services, within the meaning of section 4303(13) of title 38, whose service has not been terminated upon the occurrence of any of the events enumerated in section 4304 of such title.

(b)Remedy.—

The remedy for a violation of subsection (a) shall be such damages as would be appropriate if awarded under section 4323(d) of title 38.

(c)Regulations To Implement Section.— (d) Effective Date.—

(1)In general.—

The President, or the designee of the President, shall issue regulations to implement this section.

(2)Agency regulations.—

The regulations issued under paragraph (1) shall be the same as substantive regulations promulgated by the Secretary of Labor to implement the statutory provisions referred to in subsections (a) and (b)—

(A)except to the extent that the President or designee may determine, for good cause shown and stated together with the regulation, that a modification of such regulations would be more effective for the implementation of the rights and protections under this section; and

(B)except that the President or designee may, at the discretion of the President or designee, issue regulations to implement a provision of section 4314 or 4324 of title 38, United States Code, that applies to employees in the executive branch of the Federal Government in lieu of an analogous statutory provision referred to in subsection (a) or (b), if the issuance of such regulations—

(i)would be equally effective for the implementation of the rights and protections under this section; and

(ii)would promote uniformity in the application of Federal law to employees in the executive branch of the Federal Government.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

2010—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 111–275 substituted “under section 4323(d) of title 38” for “under paragraphs (1) and (2)(A) of section 4323(c) of title 38”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Effective Date

Subsec. (c) of this section effective Oct. 26, 1996, see section 471(b) of this title.