Soldiers’ bosses plan for loss

BOISE – As the Idaho National Guard prepares for its biggest deployment in the state’s history, volunteers across the state are trying to help the part-time soldiers’ employers through the process.

“These folks are leaving right away, well-trained, and will do a heck of a job for us,” said Dick Rush, former state agriculture director, current vice president of the Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, and a volunteer for Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve.

But, Rush warned, “Employers will be impacted.”

Of the roughly 2,000 Idaho Guard members who are preparing to go fight in Iraq, 72 percent work for private-sector employers, said Kip Moggridge, state chairman of the ESGR, and 80 percent of them work for businesses with fewer than 50 employees.

With only two exceptions – sparsely populated Butte and Camas counties – “every county in the state has someone being mobilized and leaving, and they’ll be leaving their employers,” Moggridge said.

ESGR, a volunteer group sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense, has 105 committee members in Idaho working to bring employers up to speed on federal laws that guarantee that the deployed workers keep their jobs and benefits when they return. They also preach the spirit of the law. Said Moggridge, “What we want is better understanding.”

So far, Moggridge said, the efforts appear to be paying off.

Moggridge said Thursday that Idaho has had more employers sign statements of support for their military employees, per capita, than any other state. “We have major corporations and we have little one-person employers that have signed statements of support,” he said. More than 400 have signed those statements as of this week.

Employers do sacrifice when valued employees are gone for long periods of time, Moggridge said. The current deployment will take about 2,000 Idaho soldiers for about 18 months, with training starting shortly in Fort Bliss, Texas, and departure for Iraq set for fall.

The brigade that is being mobilized includes members from every North Idaho county, including as many as 164 from Kootenai County.

Moggridge said employers benefit when they employ members of the military. “What kind of employee do you get? … Military members are drug-free, reliable, well-trained, disciplined, and you never have to remind ‘em about getting a haircut,” he said with a chuckle.

Plus, he said, the nation’s defense relies to a much greater extent than in the past on Guard members and reservists, who make up 51 percent of the nation’s fighting forces today.

Moggridge joined Rush and Karla Draper, veterans’ employment representative for the U.S. Department of Labor, in a briefing for Ada County officials Thursday, but their message applies to all employers. Ada County has about a dozen sheriff’s deputies facing deployment.

Draper said a federal law, last amended in 1994, specifically bans employment discrimination against those who serve in the military.

“It covers all employees and employers – there’s no size limit,” she said. “An employer cannot deny the time off to go do military duty, and there’s no exception to that rule.”

Specific requirements govern benefits, accrual of seniority and even pension plans, which must offer the deployed workers a chance to make up missed contributions when they return and treat them as if there has been no break in their employment.

“The Department of Defense cannot function in today’s world without the part-time citizen soldier,” Draper said. “And the biggest focus of the law is to protect their employment so that they do not suffer discrimination because of their military service.”

Moggridge said some Idaho employers have opted to offer their deployed military employees differential pay – paying the difference between their lower military salaries while deployed and their wages back home.

That’s key to allowing some to keep up with payments and family obligations. Ada County officials said Thursday that their new policy includes differential pay for as long as a year.

Moggridge said the ESGR also can mediate between employers and employees when issues arise about deployment or discrimination. Right now, the group is working on eight cases in Idaho.