Employer Update

When employees are called to active duty military service, take time to carefully review and communicate the potential impact on their VRS benefits and provide a smooth transition for our valued armed services members.

To ensure an employee receives service credit, it's essential to take the necessary reporting steps when the employee goes on leave and later, when the employee returns to the workplace. These steps are in accordance with the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA).

To accurately report when employees go out on and return from active-duty military leave, follow these five steps:

1. Mark the employee on leave without pay in myVRS Navigator. Select the Active Duty Military Leave option.
2. While the employee is in leave-without-pay status for active-duty military service, do not report contributions to VRS. However, be sure to keep the employee's salary up to date in myVRS Navigator. The salary entered should be the salary that would have been paid had the employee not been on active-duty military leave.
3. Mark the employee as Active in myVRS Navigator when he or she returns to work from leave.
4. Employees called to active-duty military service are eligible for service credit for the time served. When an employee returns to active employment, employers should request the employee provide the DD214 and certify eligible active-duty military leave in myVRS Navigator. Certify each period of active duty service, provided the employee's discharge was other than dishonorable.
5. If while on leave the employee was entitled to any annual salary changes, separate periods of eligibility must be created each time the annual salary changes. Hybrid Retirement Plan members may want to make up employee mandatory and voluntary contributions from the period they were on leave (for the defined contribution component only). They have the option to submit the Application for Contribution Make-Up (VRS-26M).