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As U.S. service members come home from Afghanistan and Iraq, they will return to a job market that looks vastly different from the one they left a decade ago. It will be a unique situation for employers, too, as they consider how to best utilize this segment of the workforce that has developed its skills in an unusual setting.

Tamsen Leachman, a partner in Fisher & Phillips鈥� Portland office, is among the employment law attorneys who are preparing clients for the return of thousands of U.S. troops. She says they fall into two categories — National Guard reservists and career military 鈥� and each has a slightly different set of rights when it comes to the workplace.

Reservists generally have the greater rights under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, meaning they are entitled to return to their same job at the same pay rate and with the same benefits they had before they left. An 鈥渆scalator provision鈥� within USERRA allows reservists to come home to a higher position and receive the necessary training required for that job, Leachman says.

Reservists also are entitled to 14 to 90 days off before returning to work, depending on how long they were deployed. Disabled reservists may take up to two years to convalesce before returning to work.

Career service members have veterans鈥� rights, which are not necessarily the same as the reservists鈥� rights, Leachman points out. The federal government is responsible for helping those veterans with job placement and training, and that group of service members is given preference in federal job openings and hiring with federal contractors.

All returning veterans are covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act, which is where things are going to get complicated for both employers and their legal counsel, Leachman says. While many veterans return with physical disabilities, an unprecedented number suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury.

鈥淭his is a group of people we couldn鈥檛 be more grateful to, but we don鈥檛 know what we鈥檙e going to be getting and how we鈥檙e going to meet the need,鈥� she says. 鈥淢ost employers are very grateful and want to help in any way they can. It is going to be difficult, though, if someone has PTSD and you don鈥檛 know what they are capable of from day to day.鈥�

Leachman notes that the coming months will be a learning curve for employers and their attorneys as the landscape of the U.S. workplace shifts yet again.