Two months after Schlom, a Chicago-based sales manager for SPX Cooling Technologies, notified the company he had been called to go to Afghanistan, a human resources manager summoned him to a breakfast meeting in the Hilton at Chicago O’Hare International Airport and fired him. A 1994 law called the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, or USERRA, says National Guard members and reservists can’t be fired or lose benefits or seniority because of military-related duties, including drill weekends or deployments like Schlom’s. “Here I am ready to deploy to a combat zone, and my company cans me,” Schlom said. Schlom went first to DOL-VETS, but found the system frustrating and ineffective. After five months, an investigator told Schlom his case lacked merit. “The law as it’s written is a very powerful law,” Schlom said. “The problem is who you get to investigate it – that’s really where we have a breakdown.” In the last seven years, Labor closed almost 30 percent of cases with a no-merit finding.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Sep 2013 03:34:42 +0000