USERRA Abuse and how to stop it
purplehayes65
1 Post
Hello all,
I am going to explain this situation as simply as I can. I work in a civilian fire department on a military installation here in Portland OR. We are currently dealing with a fire chief that was asked to step down due to several reasons, some of them certainly punishable under UCMJ. He was formerly the deputy chief before taking the chief job. The deputy position is a civilian job while the chief is active guard reserve. Since he had to step down, he is utilizing USERRA in order to keep a job. Problem is that he is overstepping his former position of deputy and dropping down to the job of firefighter, thus displacing up to two firefighters and putting them on the unemployment line. Also, they are intending to pay him those deputy chief wages which are about two grand higher than the top step firefighter. Incidentally, all firefighter positions are union jobs and he hasn't been in the union for 10 years. This seems to me a clear abuse of a law that was designed to protect people going on active duty. The fact that he is using it to take a job he wasn't doing prior to going active duty and take two jobs away from others seems criminal. Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated since I happen to be one of those two going to the unemployment line.
Thank you for your time
Jon
Comments
I am not sure you have any ability to change the course of this because USERRA is VERY strong protection for him. But I am going to link you to a good site regarding USERRA:
http://www.military.com/benefits/content/military-legal-matters/userra/userra-frequently-asked-questions.html
Was he discharged dishonorably from the Guard? That is one spot where I could see he could be denied eligiblity for reinstatement rights. However, if he as allowed to step down without discharge or discharged honorably, this will NOT come into play.
It is my understanding that the employer is required to keep "status, pay and seniority", but not the actual same job. So I don't see anything wrong with he or them requesting that he not be deputy but coming back in as a firefighter. It is strange though that he is replacing TWO jobs. I suspect that is due to the fact of what his wages have to be under USERRA reinstatement rights.