Knabe Calls for Review of County’s Military Leave Policy

On a motion by Supervisor Don Knabe at today’s Board of Supervisors meeting, Los Angeles County will review its current military leave policy for County employees to ensure they do not lose any opportunities or seniority while on deployment. Currently, in order to protect reservists and their families from loss of income and benefit coverage during deployment, the County makes up the difference, if any, between a reservist’s military pay and their County pay for up to 720 days.

“Our Country has been at war for over a decade, and many of our nearly 100,000 County employees have been deployed across the world to protect our freedoms,” said Supervisor Knabe. “This is our way of ensuring that those serving our Country do not miss out on promotional opportunities and their families do not lose benefits such as health insurance and income. County employees deployed on active duty must maintain the same rights and privileges as any other non-deployed County employee.”

The Chief Executive Officer will review the County’s current policy and report back within 60 days. Pending the receipt of recommendations, the Board can vote to suspend the current 720-day limit policy. The Chief Executive Officer will also report back on options to ensure that County Employees receive their seniority rights and privileges as well as report on efforts to develop a County-Wide Military Leave Coordinator.