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If Qwest Communications International Inc. did not offer the many benefits it gives employees who are deployed with the National Guard, William Umphress probably would have stopped volunteering for missions long ago in his 20-year career.

“I hear people talk about how it’s difficult for them, and they decline going on some of the missions because they’re concerned about their deployment,” said Umphress, a lineman for Qwest and a master sergeant with the Iowa Air National Guard.

“I can tell you right now,” he said, “I probably would have never pursued this as a secondary career if the phone company wasn’t so receptive to it.”

The federal government has placed more responsibility on its military reserve since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, with more than 10,000 Iowa National Guard soldiers and airmen being mobilized in the past six years. In Maj. Gen. Ron Dardis’ Condition of the National Guard address to Iowa legislators last Tuesday, he said he expects National Guard soldiers to deploy for 12 months every four to five years and airmen for 45 days every 18 months, given today’s conditions.

This situation affects not only soldiers, but also employers, who are required by law to give employees who serve on active duty the same position and at least the same pay level they had before serving. Allan Enright, executive director of the Iowa Committee for the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, figures that under current conditions the roughly 14,000 Guard and Reserve members in Iowa are gone from work 15 percent of the time for military duties.

“Prior to 9/11, employers were not required to put out the kind of support that they’re putting out today,” he said, “because employees are gone a lot more today for deployment.”

Given this situation, the ESGR has ramped up efforts to educate employers on the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act, the federal law that prohibits discrimination against employees because of their service in the Armed Forces Reserve or the National Guard, in hopes that it can prevent conflicts between employers and employees in the future.

Yet many of Central Iowa’s major employers have already stepped up, offering benefits beyond those required by the law.

“One thing businesses are aware of is the workforce shortage here today, and it looms even more tomorrow, so this is definitely a piece of that,” said Max Phillips, president of Qwest Iowa. “You want to keep these kinds of employees.”

Above and beyond

On Nov. 9, 2007, Gov. Chet Culver, in his role as a state employer, joined more than 200 Iowa companies on the same day in signing an ESGR Statement of Support, a formal pledge that a company or institution will abide by state and federal laws and support its employees who serve as members of the Guard and Reserve. This was part of an 18-month challenge issued by Barry Spear, chairman of the Iowa ESGR.

Enright said the mass sign-up “has caused a lot of other employers to step up to the plate, too.”

The Statement of Support is not only a way to educate people about the law, but also ranks companies by level of support, with the highest ranking – five stars – meaning the company has policies that go beyond the legal requirements and supports the ESGR’s mission by becoming an advocate for the organization. Many of Central Iowa’s major employers are at the five-star level, including Principal Financial Group Inc., Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Kemin Industries Inc. and Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc.

Enright sees this as a strong sign of employer backing for those who serve. “The fact that the United States was attacked on 9/11 on our own soil,” he said, “causes the American people to react more patriotically in support of their military obligation.”

Hy-Vee Inc. spokeswoman Chris Friesleben agreed that 9/11 increased the company’s awareness of its need to support employees who serve in the Guard and Reserve.

On Oct. 24, 2007, Hy-Vee CEO Ric Jurgens signed a Five-Star Statement of Support during a company-wide meeting, recognizing the company’s policy changes that allow workers serving on active duty to continue to accrue vacation time and receive 401(k) benefits. Though the company doesn’t make up the difference between military and civilian pay, it gives employees on military duty the pay raises they would have received had they not been serving, allows them to keep health benefits, and gives them time off before and after deployment.

Yet one of the biggest signs of support for Art Senn, a computer support technician for Hy-Vee and a captain with the Iowa Army National Guard, came in the form of care packages he received while serving in Iraq for 11 months in 2004. They provided everything from batteries to toilet paper before the town he served in, Al Taji, began stocking those supplies. Hy-Vee even sent enough pizza for the units in Al Taji to have a party. “Everybody just cheered up,” he said.

Senn was gone for a total of 14 months while deployed as the maintenance officer in the support operations section of the 185th Corps Support Battalion. Knowing he could be gone that long and still have a job was also a relief. “It takes a lot of stress off of everything because you’re already in one stressful situation, where you’re being shot at on a daily basis, so you’re focused on the here and now and not really thinking about what’s going to happen in six months,” he said.

Qwest hasn’t changed much since signing its Five-Star Statement of Support, Phillips said, except for reorganizing its policies to be more in line with the ESGR’s system. “I think one role ESGR plays really well is, it does standardize what you can do as a corporation and gives a chance to the company that isn’t doing everything to look at what it would take to do a five-star level,” he said. “It might not take that much more.”

Qwest’s benefits include giving promotions and pay raises that would have been due to an employee had he or she not been serving, making up any shortfall between military pay and Qwest wages, and giving employees time off before and after deployment. The company also has become more active in supporting veterans, hosting a veterans banquet in November and forming a veterans resource group.

Just making up the difference in base pay (excluding the military’s other monetary benefits) means Umphress actually earns more money when he serves, he said. He is currently on his second deployment to the Middle East since 9/11, handling logistics for distinguished guests visiting a military base.

With about 67 Qwest employees deployed across the company, Phillips said, “The difficulties, I think, are managing the workload around those kind of deployments, maintaining the morale of those who are filling the gap, and there are some cost things. But when you think about the kind of sacrifice these people are making on all of our behalf, it’s probably not worth talking about.”

Enright says benefits beyond those mandated by USERRA don’t have to cost the company a huge amount; examples include volunteering to do household chores for the employee’s family and sending the employee the company newsletter. Companies that do make that effort, he said, “gain more loyalty and commitment from their employees,” which he sees in the nomination letters soldiers send to his organization to apply for company awards.

The Iowa ESGR has more than 150 volunteers available across the state to meet with employers, answer questions and host information sessions. It also briefed 17,000 soldiers last year on the requirements of the law.

“Our job is preventive,” Enright said, “and to get involved early on in any questions, issues or concerns with the employee or employer before it gets to the point of complaint process.”

Violations

Last year, the U.S. Department of Labor investigated 38 formal complaints for violation of the USERRA, and referred one to the attorney general.

Anthony Smithhart, director of the Iowa office of the U.S. Labor Department’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service, who handles the investigations in the state, said since 1991, when he became the director, he has only had to refer three complaints to the attorney general, even though complaints have doubled since 9/11. Iowa also resolves issues in an average of 22 days, half the national average.

Last year was the first time a situation escalated to the federal courts, said state Rep. McKinley Bailey, a Democrat from Webster City.

Pam Reynolds, a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve, was called to active duty at Fort Hood, Texas, in March 2006. While she was gone, Green Hills Retirement Community in Ames, where she worked as a physical therapist, ended its contract with Reynolds’ employer, Progressive Rehab Services LLC, and hired RehabCare Group Inc. to provide its physical therapist work. When Reynolds returned to her job 15 months later, she was told that she needed to reapply and eventually was offered the same position at Green Hills, but at lower pay. She sued RehabCare, but was recently denied an injunction to get her job back.

“It’s a unique situation,” Bailey said. “It’s fairly complex, and the business is an out-of-state business, where they don’t ever actually have to work with her. They subcontract out and have no personal interest in what’s going on.”

The situation raised a red flag in the Iowa Legislature. House File 2065 was signed into law on Feb. 14, bringing Iowa’s law more in line with USERRA and adding a provision that protects Guard and Reserve members who leave work for state duty, such as a natural disaster. Bailey, who served as a paratrooper in Afghanistan and Iraq, is continuing to watch Reynolds’ case to see if further changes need to be made.

“Employers across the state by and large have done an amazing job of taking care of our people when they come home,” he said, “but if it happens to one, that’s one too many.”

Those who strive to uphold the USERRA agree that companies face challenges in complying with the law, especially in communicating the policy to the supervisor who works directly with the employee and handling the absent worker’s duties in a small business. In addition, employers may have to provide training for employees when they return if technology or processes have changed.

The Small Business Administration provides Military Reservists Economic Injury Disaster Loans to help small businesses meet the operating expenses they would have met had they not had an employee on active duty. But so far, Joe Folsom, director of the SBA’s district office in Des Moines, said not many employers have taken advantage of the program in Central Iowa.

For the most part, experts agree Iowa employers are supportive of the Guard and Reserve.

“I would say most of the employers in this state, even if they’re unaware of the law or don’t know the fine points of the law, are still exceeding the law because they care about their employees,” Enright said. “I think that makes our job in this state much easier, and that is why we have very few issues.”