HIRING A TRANSITIONING SERVICE MEMBER? FEHA PROTECTS THEM BEFORE THEY’RE HIRED
The U.S. Department of War’s SkillBridge program lets employers train and evaluate a transitioning service member for up to 180 days before deciding whether to bring them on as a regular hire. Because the participant is still paid by the military during that period, it is easy for an employer to think of the placement as low- risk, informal, and outside the reach of ordinary employment law.
California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act, or FEHA, does not see it that way. Gov. Code § 12940(a) makes military and veteran status a protected characteristic, on the same footing as race, sex, and disability.
The definition is broad: Gov. Code § 12926(k) covers any member or veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces, the Reserves, the National Guard, or the California National Guard, with no active- duty or federal- service requirement attached.
California’s Military and Veterans Code § 394 supplies a separate state- court claim for current servicemembers, independent of FEHA. Whether a particular SkillBridge decision holds up depends on how the candidate was screened and evaluated, which is fact- specific.
FEHA does carve out one specific accommodation for programs like this: an employer may ask about military or veteran status for the purpose of awarding a hiring preference. That carve- out covers the question, not the conduct that follows it. How a SkillBridge candidate is screened, evaluated, and either offered or not offered a role is still ordinary FEHA territory.
California is also not a marginal player here. The state’s concentration of major installations, including Camp Pendleton, Naval Base San Diego, Travis Air Force Base, Beale Air Force Base, Edwards Air Force Base, and the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center at Twenty- Nine Palms, means a disproportionate share of the nation’s transitioning service members separate close to California employers. A program built around military and veteran participants is not a rare edge case here. It is a recurring hiring channel.
Treating a SkillBridge placement as informal because the paycheck comes from the military, rather than as a hiring process subject to the same anti- discrimination rules as any other, is where the exposure tends to start. Whether a specific placement, evaluation, or non- offer decision holds up depends on the facts of that decision, which is where a no-charge initial consultation is useful.
Contact Michael Trust Law, APC for a no-charge initial consultation. The facts determine what needs to be addressed – and how much of a conversation that takes.
This post shares general information based on common patterns I see in California workplaces. It is not legal advice, does not create an attorney- client relationship, and outcomes depend on specific facts – no lawyer can guarantee a result. Past results do not guarantee or predict future outcomes. AI may have been used to create this post. All content reviewed by a CA attorney before publication.