Virginia’s Veteran Preferential Hiring Law, Va. Code § 40.1-27.2 (“VPHL,” titled “Preference for veterans and spouses,”) allows employers to choose to grant preference in hiring and promotion to veterans or the spouses of disabled veterans.
Definition of Disabled Veteran
The VPHL generally defines “disabled veteran” for the purposes of its provisions as a veteran who has been found by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or by a retirement board of a branch of one of the armed forces to have a “compensable service-connected permanent and total disability”:
A. As used in this section, unless the context requires a different meaning:
“Disabled veteran” means a veteran who has been found by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or by the retirement board of one of the several branches of the armed forces to have a compensable service-connected permanent and total disability.
Definition of Veteran
The VPHL further generally defines veteran as any person who has received an honorable discharge and:
(i) has provided more than 180 consecutive days of full-time, active-duty service in the armed forces of the United States or reserve components thereof, including the National Guard, or
(ii) has a service-connected disability rating fixed by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.
The VPHL that the definition of “veteran” “has the same meaning ascribed to such term in § 2.2-2903.” Va. Code § 40.1-27.2(A). That section therefore provides the relevant definition:
“Veteran” means any person who has received an honorable discharge and (i) has provided more than 180 consecutive days of full-time, active-duty service in the armed forces of the United States or reserve components thereof, including the National Guard, or (ii) has a service-connected disability rating fixed by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.
General Rule: Permissive Preference in Hiring and Promotion
The VPHL provides that an employer may grant preference in hiring and promotion to a veteran or the spouse of a disabled veteran:
B. An employer may grant preference in hiring and promotion to a veteran or the spouse of a disabled veteran.
Va. Code § 40.1-27.2(B). While the law states that employers “may” grant such a preference, it does not state that employers are required to do so.
Relationship to Local or State Equal Employment Opportunity Laws
Finally, the VPHL further provides that granting the preference allowed in hiring or promotion of veterans or spouses of disabled veterans does not violate local or state equal employment opportunity law:
C. Granting preference under subsection B does not violate any local or state equal employment opportunity law.
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