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Veterans Benefits Improvement Act of 2004 Creates Additional Responsibilities for Employers

On December 10, 2004, President Bush signed into law the Veterans Benefits Improvement Act of 2004, which amends portions of the 1994 Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, providing reemployment protection and other benefits for veterans and employees who perform military services. The new act contains two requirements of particular importance for employers: one extends the period for continuation of health care coverage; the other creates an obligation to provide covered employees with notice of their USERRA rights, benefits and obligations.

First, the new act extends the maximum coverage period of employer-sponsored health care for USERRA-covered employees from 18 to 24 months (Section 201). By way of background, USERRA gives employees who are absent from work because of duties in the uniformed services the right to continue employer-provided health care coverage even if the employer is not bound by COBRA, the federal law mandating continuation of coverage for eligible employees who so elect. The extension of the coverage period under the new act applies to all continuation elections made after December 10, 2004. The maximum amount that an employee who elects to continue health care coverage can be charged is 102% of the full premium under the plan, unless the employee is absent from work for less than 31 days, in which case the employee cannot be charged more than the employee's share of the cost of the coverage.

Second, the new act requires employers to provide employees with notice of their rights, benefits and obligations under USERRA (Section 203). Posting the notice of USERRA rights where other employee notices customarily are posted will satisfy the requirement. The required language for the notice is to be made available to employers by the Secretary of Labor at some point before this requirement goes into effect on March 10, 2005.

Other employment-related provisions of the new act deal with on the job training and apprenticeship programs; educational assistance for surviving spouses of service members who die while on active duty; education programs using benefits to cover the amount charged for various college entrance exams and tests that provide course credits at institutions of higher learning; coordination of information so veterans receive full apprenticeship credit for training received while in the military; and the authority of the Secretary of Defense to collect from members of the Selected Reserve, by any means necessary, the $1,200 required to enroll in the Montgomery GI Bill Active Duty Chapter 30 program.

For more information on the Veterans Benefits Improvement Act of 2004, please contact the Jackson Lewis attorney with whom you regularly work, or one of the firm's veterans employment rights specialists: Diane Stanton or Richard Greenberg.