In addition to active duty leave, the law mandates that you grant annual leave to attend reserve or national guard encampment, maneuvers, drills, training, or any other duty of a short-term nature. Generally, only public employers are required to pay for any part of military leave. Private employers may grant annual leave with or without pay and may pay for all or part of the leave. In the case of active duty leave, the employer may adopt a policy of paying the difference between civilian pay and military pay. What employers may not do, in most cases, is charge military leave to annual vacation leave.
Military leave is intended to be in addition to any annual vacation.
The employee may, however, choose to use paid vacation time where military leave is not paid. Any benefits or employment rights that you provide to employees who are on leave of absence for reasons other than military leave must be provided to employees who are on military leave. For example, if you continue to contribute to the cost of benefits for employees and their dependents while the employees are on maternity leave , employees on military leave should be given the same coverage, unless military coverage becomes the primary coverage. Further, employees on military leave should not be discharged and then rehired upon return from active duty if other leave policies do not have a similar requirement. Employees who return from military leave must be reinstated to the position they left to take leave or a similar position.