In this instance, yes. Your company has a valid cause for terminating Prahba within one year of her return to employment after military service, where adverse economic conditions contributed to a decision to downsize your workforce.

Generally, once reemployed, an employee who had been on military leave is protected from being discharged, except as for cause:

• for one year after the date of reemployment if the person’s period of military service was for 181 days or more; or
• for six months after the date of reemployment if the person’s period of military service was for 31 days to 180 days.

The purpose of this special protection under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA), is to ensure that returning service members are given reasonable time to regain civilian skills and to guard against bad faith reinstatement.

Cause for discharging a reemployed veteran exists if the two following criteria are met:

1. it is reasonable to discharge the employee for the conduct in question, and
2. the employee had notice, expressed or implied, that the conduct would be grounds for discharge.

It is the employer’s responsibility to show that it had a sufficient reason to discharge a service member within the protected period following his or her reemployment. Good cause exists also if the escalator principle would have eliminated a person’s job or placed the person on layoff in the normal course of business, as was the situation here.

Source: When Duty Calls: Military Leave and Veterans’ Rights (CCH Incorporated, 2003).