Posted on 01/28/2008 9:47:43 AM PST by nckerr
Fellow Freepers. I ran across a young man that recently joined the Army Reserves to serve. He works for the Harley Davidson store in Morgan Hill, CA. He has never been written up, has a good work relationship, and is suppose to be protected under the Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Act of 1996. Upon telling his employer that he would be leaving for Basic Training but would be returning afterwards in a reserve status, the employer "let him go" without reason.
If anyone can help out by referring an attorney or maybe calling this company to let them know how unprofessional unpatriotic that is, please reply here. This guy has a family to feed and should not be punished for serving!
I hope you can find an attorney. I wonder if he was part time. I find it hard to believe that Harley Davidson (who sells bikes on bases overseas) would do this without reason. Could the young man be embarrassed to tell you what really caused his “let go”?
No. That was his main worry when he joined and I told him that no one would ever do that to a Soldier. But we are in Santa Clara county.
The young man’s recruiter should be able to help out. I am sure they have a process to deal with this.
BTTT
There is NO protection in this law. The law has no teeth. An employer can do what they want and they may get a phone call about later.
The best this young man can do is:
1. Make a huge stink about in the local and national media. I am sure HOG does not want that kind of bad publicity. Write the company president. On the downside - you will be a marked for the rest of your career there and anyplace else (yes - employers google you before hiring you)
2. Move on. Better to find out when you are young that your employer is a jerk.
There are two people that he can contact for help. One is the Jag officer that is connected with his unit. The second person is the ESGR (Employer Support Guard Reserve). They will convince that employer that not only will that young man keep his job, his employer will like it.
That employer is about to learn one of the ten commandment of being in the Guard. “Thou shalt not fire or demote a guard member due to his military service”.
Friend of mine had the same thing happen to him, sort of. He was already in the National Guard when he got the job he was fired from. He went on his 2 week training one summer and came back and his job had fired him for not being at work and having no vacation time.
They got around the entire thing by claiming he had not attended two mandatory employee meetings. Well these meetings were held once a month, but strangely THREE were held the two weeks he was gone.
He didn’t bother fighting it and just went and got another job that paid more...he was out of work for less then a week.
This is the correct contact info:
Website: http://www.houseofthunderhd.com/
Phone and address:
16175 Condit Road
Morgan Hill, CA 95037
(408) 776-1900
Lets help this guy out!
He should try the Judge Advocate General lawyers. They know that stuff backwards and forwards.
If he would simply go to the big bike clubs and tell them his story. Wanna bet that they give him his job back without question?
Even Hells Angels would get after the bums.
A letter writing and calling campaign (to the store, to the Harley Davidson headquarters, and to local media) would resolve the problem without costing the guy anything in attorney fees. (Plus it would show HD that the people are watching.)
I don't know where you get your information, but my husband has been in the the military/Guard for 35 years. I am actively involved with the family program and have worked with ESGR on several occasions. ESGR has numerous ways to "convince" employers that they will not only retain a guard member, but they will "like" it.
There is protection. Back in the late 70's, early 80's I was in HR for my company in Detroit. We had an employee who enlisted in the Army and after 4 years returned to the plant. Unfortunately, due to the recession, the department he worked in had been sold so the employees had been laid off. Even tho he would have lost his job had he not been in the service, an arbitrator said we had to put him back to work..........
The law does work....
http://www.houseofthunderhd.com/
House of Thunder Harley-Davidson
16175 Condit Road
Morgan Hill, CA 95037
(408) 776-1900
http://www.houseofthunderhd.com/guestbook.asp
Wow. I know a LOT of Harley drivers that are very pro-Military and Patriotic... I wonder what some of them would say? Make this public and let the bikers know....
Oh yeah... for the record, if he is actually a Reservist, he can go see the Military Lawyers, and his commander about this, and the COMMANDER himself will actually do something about it. There is a big push to educate the public on Reserves and Guardsmen and their jobs - and because they are called to duty, there are laws protecting their jobs as well. So, he has several options without going to get a high-paying lawyer, try going to his Commander first, and the legal-eagles that he will have available to him through the military.
Yeah - like I said - there is no teeth in the law. The most the ESGR will do is that they will "talk" to the employer. If the employer refuses - they might get another "talking to."
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