MS HB322

Allows private employers to voluntarily adopt employment policies that give hiring and promotion preference to honorably discharged veterans.

Extends preference eligibility to spouses of service members with permanent service-connected disabilities who cannot work, and spouses of missing, captured, or interned service members.

Includes unremarried surviving spouses of veterans who died from service-connected disabilities and unremarried surviving spouses of armed forces members who died in combat-related conditions.

Specifies that veteran employment preferences must be applied uniformly to both hiring and promotion decisions.

Provides that offering such preferences does not violate state or local equal employment opportunity laws; effective July 1, 2020.