A friend of mine manages a few workers.  One is in the National Guard.  Every once in a while the guardsman says he can't work on a weekend because he has guard duty.  I'm pretty sure from what I've heard that they must work on some weekends; however, is it possible to know in advance which weekends he will have to work?  If so, is there anyone my friend could call to verify?

My friend is afraid that the guy may just be telling him this to get out of work - it would be nice to know ahead of time which weekends the guy will be unavailable.

Also, who should he ask to determine if the employee is really in the Guard?  

Is it common to get a call in the middle of the night saying you have to be somewhere the next day?

Thanks!

The Guard member is obligated to give his employer an annual drill schedule. Some employers require a letter from the Guard member every month specifying the drill dates, although thats often overkill. If the Guard member wont cough up the annual drill schedule, find out what unit it is and have your friend call over and talk to their CO. No CO is going to be happy to hear that their Soldier is pissing off an employer. Its hard enough to get employers cooperation without the enlisted guy shooting himself in the foot by not cooperating.

Ask for his Commands phone number ,,he should be able to furnish units number too

have had to do this with some a my personnel,,

thanks guys!

I'll pass this info on to him.






edited: I've sent him a link to this thread.  Thanks, again.

Quoted: The Guard member is obligated to give his employer an annual drill schedule. Some employers require a letter from the Guard member every month specifying the drill dates, although thats often overkill. If the Guard member wont cough up the annual drill schedule, find out what unit it is and have your friend call over and talk to their CO. No CO is going to be happy to hear that their Soldier is pissing off an employer. Its hard enough to get employers cooperation without the enlisted guy shooting himself in the foot by not cooperating.

Annual drill schedule?

My son's battalion seems to schedule drill at the last minute every month.  I even had a chat with his Battalion and company commanders about it...  they are clueless.

Quoted: [Annual drill schedule? My son's battalion seems to schedule drill at the last minute every month.  I even had a chat with his Battalion and company commanders about it...  they are clueless.

I've never heard of a unit that didn't plan its training at least a year out. They may have last minute changes, or even several schedule amendments during the training year, but major changes in my unit has always resulted in a new training schedule being released to be given to employers.

http://www.esgr.org/members2/thelaw.asp
An employee no longer requests permission to be absent for military leave but rather provides notification of pending military service.

Or maybe the CO in question needs to be given a sample letter:

www.esgr.org/utResources/sampleLetters/sample_letter_from_CO.doc
or this statement:

"Get to know your employees' military commanders and supervisors. Ask them to provide you with advance notice of your employee's annual military duty schedule and work out conflicts as early as possible, while alternative arrangements may be possible. If you would like an introduction, contact us and we'll get your local ESGR representative to make arrangements for you to meet them."

www.esgr.org/employers2/aboutESGR.asp?c=factEmployerTips.html

Thats all I am going to look up right now. Bottom line is, the Guard member is dropping the ball,as I said. If the senior officers are indeed clueless, someone in the chain of command has their head buried somewhere.

The schedule is planned a long ways ahead. However, the schedule is also subject to change.

For example, I was supposed to have drill next weekend, and AT the first two weeks of June. About two weeks ago, we had been informed that there was something of a scheduling cock-up, and drill is now end April, and AT covers the last two weeks in June, early July. This is a big thing, not least because my wedding now conflicts with AT.

I am not going to reschedule my wedding.

I wouldn't be too worried if the employee does this only one month a year or so. Anything more than that, and you'll be best served calling the unit and speaking to the full-timer to just verify that it was indeed a recent change.

[ETA: Even if the Guardsman is dropping the ball, and not lying about the weekends, but just not arsing himself to be polite enough to let the employer know about it, you can't legally repremand him for it. However, you can call his commander, and advise him of the soldier's failings, the military will take care of it]

NTM

Quoted: The schedule is planned a long ways ahead. However, the schedule is also subject to change.

If its one thing thats subject to change, its your Guard drill schedule. It is a given that if there is soemthing that you want to attend or something you want to do on a weekend, it will fall on your Guard drill weekend. Its been that way ever since I've been in. They actually scheduled drill this year for Superbowl Sunday, and only changed it when someone with some sense higher up the change asked them if they really wanted nearly 100 % absenteeism.

Theres always the chance that the employee in this case is scamming. I had a coworker years ago who tried that after he starting seeing how they couldn't argue with giving me the time off ( people in your regular job invariably see your Guard time as "vacation time"; they don't see the work involved ). He decided he was joining the Naval Reserve and started claiming drill weekends, with about as much documentation as the guy in the thread starter was giving. It wasn't very many months before he was caught in not attending training.