Based on recent changes to the Wounded Warriors Federal Leave Act of 2015, the Navy Exchange Service Command (NEXCOM) announced the creation of a new Disabled Veterans Leave policy for its associates.

“NEXCOM is excited to offer this great benefit to our community’s disabled veterans,” said retired Rear Adm. Robert J. Bianchi, CEO of NEXCOM. “As a Navy command, we understand better than most civilian employers that our veteran workforce may need additional time off for medical appointments due to their disability. In fact, over half of our 14,000 personnel have some military affiliation, so I appreciate our Human Resources team taking advantage of this new benefit for our veteran associates. Our nation’s veterans are a critical component of our NEXCOM team, so it’s important that they have the resources available to take care of their health and well-being.”

The new NEXCOM leave policy provides any associate, who is a veteran with a qualifying service-connected disability rating of 30 percent or more, with “disabled veteran leave” during their first year of employment. The 12-month eligibility period starts on the first day of employment. This pool of leave will be granted all at once when the new associate is brought on board. Any associate who has been re-hired is eligible to have previously-earned sick leave re-credited and will have those re-credited sick leave hours subtracted from the total pool of disabled veteran leave hours.

“The leave granted to disabled veterans will be five percent of the associate’s estimated work hours within a 12-month period,” said Robert Clayton, Senior Vice President, Human Resources for NEXCOM. “So, even part-time associates can take advantage of this terrific benefit. For example, a disabled veteran scheduled to work only 20 hours a week (or 1,040 hours in a 12-month period) could still qualify for 52 hours of disabled veteran leave.”

NEXCOM oversees 100 Navy Exchange (NEX) facilities and nearly 300 stores worldwide, 39 Navy Lodges, the Ships Store Program, the Uniform Program Management Office, the Navy Clothing and Textile Research Facility and the Telecommunications Program Office. Veterans who wish to work for NEXCOM can search for a job at https://www.mynavyexchange.com/nex/work-for-us.

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