President Clinton may call up as many as 33,000 U.S. reserve men and women to assist in the NATO war effort in the former Yugoslavia, meaning some regular employees may soon be forced to leave their posts.
So far, only 2,000 have been called, none of from Rhode Island. But if forces from Rhode Island were to be called, they, like every other U.S. service man and woman, would be protected by a series of federal laws designed to prevent employers from discriminating against members of the military.
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The National Committee for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve, headed locally by John Ricottilli, who is a senior vice president at Taco in Cranston, helps both sides to understand their rights under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994.
The law requires servicemen and women and their employers to cooperate. While employers may not prevent employees from attending drills or annual training, employees are required to keep their employers informed as to when they will have to be absent from work.
The protections have become more and more relevant as the United States relies increasingly on its reserves. About 52 percent of the U.S. armed forces are reserves, said Ricottilli, a former commander of the New England reserve forces. The dependence has increased as the country has cut back on its regular forces since 1989, the year the Berlin Wall came down.
While employers may not necessarily understand all the laws that apply to service men and women who work for them, most are cooperative, Ricottilli said. When problems do arise, he added, the committee is there to help.
“We have very few problems that aren’t resolved quickly,” he said.
