ST23 Massachusetts (December 2007; Updated August 2010 - no changes to law)
1.18: USERRA and Other Laws
2.0: Paid Leave

Massachusetts Law on Paid Military Leave

By CAPT Samuel F. Wright, JAGC, USN (Ret.)

Massachusetts law provides as follows concerning paid military leave for employees of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and its political subdivisions:

"Any person in the service of the commonwealth, or of a county, city, or town which, by vote of its county commissioners or city council or of its inhabitants at a town meeting, accepts this section, or has accepted similar provisions of earlier laws, shall be entitled, during the time of his service in the armed forces of the commonwealth, under section thirty-eight, forty, forty-one, forty-two or sixty, or during his annual tour of duty of not exceeding 34 days in any state fiscal year and not exceeding 17 days in any federal fiscal year as a member of a Reserve Component of the armed forces of the United States, to receive pay therefor, without loss of his ordinary remuneration as an employee or official of the commonwealth, or of such county, city, or town, and shall also be entitled to the same leaves of absence or vacation with pay given to other like employees or officials." (Annotated Laws of Massachusetts, Chapter 33, section 59.)

It appears that the right to paid military leave, under this state law, applies to active duty and active duty for training, but not to inactive duty training. A member of the National Guard or Reserve has the right to unpaid military leave for inactive duty training or for any other form of uniformed service, voluntary or involuntary, under a Federal law called the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA).

Section 59 is ambiguous as to how the 17 days of paid military leave is to be computed. Do weekends and holidays count in exhausting the 17-day limit?

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