USERRA applies to public and private employers in the United States, regardless of size, and includes federal, state, and local governments, as well as for-profit and not-for-profit private sector firms. In addition to the reemployment provisions, USERRA also prohibits discrimination in employment against individuals because of their service, obligation to perform service, or membership or application for membership in the uniformed services. Generally, servicemembers who were absent from their civilian job by reason of their service are entitled to the reemployment rights and benefits provided by USERRA if they provided their employer with advance notice of their service requirement when possible, served fewer than 5 years of cumulative uniformed service with respect to that employer, left service under honorable conditions, and reported back to work or applied for reemployment in a timely manner. Servicemembers who meet their USERRA requirements are entitled to prompt reinstatement to the positions they would have held if they had never left their employment or to positions of like seniority, status, and pay; continued health coverage for a designated period of time while absent from their employers and immediate reinstatement of health coverage upon return; training, as needed, to requalify for their jobs; periods of protection against discharge (without cause) based on the length of service; and nonseniority benefits that are available to other employees who are on leaves of absence. If a servicemember believes that his or her USERRA rights have been violated, the servicemember may seek formal assistance from federal agencies in resolving the complaint. Figure 1 below shows the formal USERRA complaint process using federal assistance and the deadlines imposed by VBIA 2008. In addition, VBIA 2008 requires DOJ, DOL, and OSC to submit quarterly reports to Congress on their compliance with the deadlines. The reports cover USERRA activities for the previous quarter and are due within 30 days of the end of that quarter. To implement VBIA 2008 reporting requirements, each of the agencies updated their existing databases used to both maintain data on USERRA cases and produce the required reports. DOL produces its quarterly USERRA reports by extracting data contained in its USERRA Information Management System, a Web-based system managed by VETS that includes critical events in the history of the case, case resolution, complainant and employer names, and dates. DOJ’s Employment Litigation Section of the Civil Rights Division, maintains data on the extent to which it meets VBIA 2008 deadlines in a WordPerfect log, which is an ancillary system to the Civil Rights Division’s primary data system. OSC uses OSC 2000, which was designed to capture and record data from the initial filing of a complaint until the closure and archiving of the case file and allows for queries that create a number of management and workload reports. Our analysis showed that in the 1,663 investigations included in our review, DOL generally met the original deadline or a new deadline agreed to by the servicemember. For investigations, DOL met the original 90-day deadline or an extended deadline in about 99 percent of cases. During the period covered by our review, DOL took on average about 52 days to complete an investigation. Figure 2 shows the extent to which DOL met initial and extended investigation deadlines. (1442) 1% (15) <1% (8) When DOL exceeded the deadline, it generally negotiated an extension with the servicemember to complete the investigation and met those extended deadlines. In the 213 cases where DOL asked for and received the complainant’s consent for an extension, DOL met the last extended deadline in approximately 93 percent (198) of the investigations. For cases that exceeded the deadline, the average processing time was approximately 138 days. The longest investigation took nearly a year (357 days) to complete. According to DOL, this case, for which the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) was the trustee, involved a servicemember who returned to employment after his pension plan had been terminated and was affected by a change in PBGC rules under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) of 1974. As of February 28, 2010, 68 cases subject to our review remained open (i.e., their investigation had not yet been completed). For investigations that remained open, 32 of 68 cases had been open for more than 90 days. The average age of those still open was approximately 104 days. As of February 28, 2010, the investigation that had been open the longest was 285 days. According to DOL, during the course of the 285 days, the investigation had been closed for 45 days due to the complainant’s lack of response to the investigator’s inquiries. After DOL reopened the investigation, the parties reached a settlement, but DOL kept the case open, in accordance with DOL policy, until all the terms of the settlement had been met. To assess the progress of investigations taking more than 90 days, VETS officials said that they produce a monthly management report, which helps them identify and eliminate any barriers to resolution. The report is also reviewed to identify any recurring issues that need to be resolved through revised procedures or enhanced training. When servicemembers requested a referral, DOL met either the original 60-day deadline to send the case to DOJ or OSC or an extended deadline in more than 99 percent of the 205 referrals in our review. During the period covered by our review, DOL took, on average, about 67 days to send the memorandum of referral to DOJ or OSC. Figure 3 shows the extent to which DOL met initial and extended referral deadlines. 64% (131) 36% (74) 36% (73) <1% (1) 0% (0) When DOL exceeded the deadline on referral cases, it generally negotiated an extension with the servicemember in order to finish processing the referral and send it to DOJ or OSC. Where DOL asked for and received the complainant’s consent for an extension of time, DOL met the last extended referral deadline in nearly all cases—73 of 74 cases. For the 74 cases that exceeded the deadline, the average processing time was about 113 days, with the longest referral taking 348 days to process. According to DOL, the complainant in this case had been injured in service and was not medically ready to return to work at the time of the referral. Once the complainant became medically stable, DOL could determine whether there was an appropriate reemployment position to which the complainant could return, and the case was ultimately resolved. As of February 28, 2010, 34 referral cases subject to our review remained open and were still being processed by DOL. Of the referrals still open as of February 28, 2010, 13 of 34 cases had been open for more than 60 days. The average age for those still open was 71 days. The referral open the longest had an age of 324 days. According to DOL, it was difficult to obtain the employer’s compliance with the terms of the settlement agreement, and DOL kept the case open until the employer complied. To assess the progress of referral processing, DOL also produces a monthly management report on referrals to ensure that established procedures are being followed and that, if the referral process will exceed 60 days, DOL will negotiate for and document an extension of time. To implement the VBIA 2008 requirement to notify servicemembers of their USERRA complaint process rights within 5 days of receiving a complaint, DOL created a standard notification letter that advises servicemembers of their right to request to have their case referred to DOJ or OSC for further review, or that the servicemember can file a complaint using private counsel. For complaints filed electronically, DOL updated its USERRA database to automatically generate the standard notification in an E-mail and send it directly to servicemembers. For complaints filed in hard copy, the assigned DOL employee is to send the servicemember a copy of the notification letter via E-mail or mail. To ensure that the notifications are sent to the servicemember, DOL requires the investigator to make a notation in the hard copy case file indicating that the notification was sent and on what date. However, DOL does not record this information in its USERRA database and does not track the extent to which it complies with the notification requirement. VBIA 2008 does not require DOL to report on the extent to which it complies with this notification requirement. We have previously reported on the importance of ensuring that servicemembers are appropriately notified of their rights. In 2007, we reported that DOL did not consistently notify complainants of their rights at the end of the investigation and recommended that DOL update its operations manual and augment its training. Since 2007, DOL has taken actions to improve its process for notifying servicemembers of their rights at the end of the investigation. However, because VBIA 2008 does not require DOL to report on the extent to which it meets the new requirement to notify servicemembers of their rights in writing within 5 days of receiving the complaint, and DOL does not maintain and monitor such data, Congress and DOL cannot be assured that servicemembers who file complaints are adequately being informed of their USERRA process rights in accordance with VBIA 2008. Although DOL does not maintain data in its USERRA database on notifications of USERRA complaint process rights, we were able to estimate, based on our review of a random sample of case files, the extent to which DOL notified servicemembers of their USERRA complaint process rights within 5 days. Specifically, we estimated that in about 85 percent of cases, DOL notified complainants of their rights within 5 days. In about 9 percent of the cases, we estimated that DOL notified complainants late.