Request By:
Hon. James E. Armstrong
Armstrong, Cantrell and Hatfield
205 Harrison Street
P.O. Box 704
Greenup, Kentucky 41144
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; John H. Gray, Assistant Attorney General
Thank you for your letter which asks:
Is the City of Russell, Kentucky required to grant leave of absence to a police officer to attend training in a National Guard Unit in the State of West Virginia?
Under 38 U.S.C. 2024(d) and (f) the city of Russell would be required to grant the police officer in question a leave of absence even if the officer belonged to a West Virginia National Guard Unit.
38 U.S.C. 2024(d) provides:
(d) Any employee . . . shall upon request be granted a leave of absence by such person's employer for the period required to perform active duty for training or inactive duty training in the Armed Forces of the United States. Upon such employee's release from a period of such active duty for training or inactive duty training or upon such employee's discharge from hospitalization incident to that training, such employee shall be permitted to return to such employee's position with such seniority, status, pay and vacation as such employee would have had if such employee had not been absent for such purposes.
38 U.S.C. 2024(f) provides:
(f) For the purposes of subsections (c) and (d) of this section, full-time training or other full-time duty performed by a member of the National Guard under section 316, 503, 504, or 505 of title 32, is considered active duty for training; and for the purpose of subsection (d) of this section, inactive duty training performed by that member under section 502 of title 32 or section 206, 301, 309, 402, or 1002 of title 37, is considered inactive duty training.
38 U.S.C. 2024 does not differentiate between National Guard Units of different states. The fact that the police officer in question is employed in Kentucky but belongs to a Guard Unit in West Virginia should not affect his leave of absence.
It is hoped that this has satisfactorily answered your question.