Marine Fired After Being Called To Active Duty

KGTV TheSanDiegoChannel via Yahoo ^ | Monday, April 14, 2003 | TheSanDiegoChannel.com

[InShanghai]

Marine Fired After Being Called To Active Duty

The pregnant wife of a California Marine reservist says she is considering legal action against her husband's former bosses, 10News reported.

Shari Moffitt says Hyundai fired her husband, Sgt. Clifford Moffitt, after he was called to active duty. Clifford Moffitt is a Marine Corps reservist who thought his job at Hyundai was secure.

"Instead he received a letter on the battle field, saying that Hyundai decided to terminate his employment two months after he left," Shari Moffitt said.

Shari Moffitt is also employed at Hyundai. She is talking with civil rights attorney Gloria Allred about possible legal action.

[canis major]

Hmm, Korean company firing a Marine.

[Centurion2000]

Shari Moffitt says Hyundai fired her husband, Sgt. Clifford Moffitt, after he was called to active duty. Clifford Moffitt is a Marine Corps reservist who thought his job at Hyundai was secure.

BIG MISTAKE .... she's going to wind up owning a good chunk of that Hyuandai shop when she's finished.

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[Las Vegas Dave]

Didn't Hyundai motors admit a few weeks ago that they gave North Korea $500,000,000 ?

[leadpenny]

Hyundai of San Diego? Military town?

Sounds like a Target of Opportunity for a FReep. They'll get the message when their sales drop off. Vote with your feet, San Diego FReepers.

[Longlines]

Federal law against just such action.

[goldstategop]

Yeah... some companies don't appreciate their freedom to make money is protected by our military.

[risk]

Federal law against just such action.

Let's throw the book at them.

[LouD]

I'd like to say that I'll boycott them - But I can't understand why anyone would buy one of their POS cars in the first place...

[AlaninSA]

I hope you're suggesting a protest, not a boycott.

A boycott of Hyundai by Freepers would be ineffective...it's not like any of us stoop so low as to drive one.

[topher]

The website for Hyundai USA is:

http://www.hyundaiusa.com/

On this site you will find a tab called "locate dealer nearest you". Click on that, and enter your zip. Then you can find a dealer to "vent" your opinion.

It is a shame we could find a few hackers to put the American Flag on the Hyundai site with "Sempi Fi" with it. It would be nice if I knew how to hack into such sites.

[Movemout]

They must have a totally incompetent HR director. Unless, they had a termination for cause process in the works before he was called to active duty; even then I would think that process would be suspended pending his return to civilian status. He would naturally have some avenues of appeal. I guess that their business practices are on a par with the quality of their vehicles. My brother bought two of them a while back. I asked him why he would be so foolish. His answer? "They are so cheap it is like buying a disposable lighter instead of a Zippo." Neither vehicle lasted five years.

[libertylover]

I'm happy to report that my employer took pretty much the opposite approach. Not only are reservist's jobs secure when they return, but their **full salary** is being paid while they are on active duty. Without this, many would be in deep financial doo-doo since military pay is quite low compared to private sector earnings.

[2timothy3.16]

South Korena auto maker Hyundai, has made the US haters list. Lest we forget.

[2timothy3.16]

We would like to include companies like yours on the US-lovers site, can you give us and independant news source to verify your companies position?

[lsee]

LOL! Reminds me of that Rush Limbaugh parody "In a Yugo"...

[No Truce With Kings]

"BIG MISTAKE .... she's going to wind up owning a good chunk of that Hyuandai shop when she's finished."

Yup. Hyuandai violated the Soldiers and Sailors act. It's been around since the 1940s, so they do not even have the excuse of having had a new law slip by them. Their only hope is to get a leftist Clinton-era judge who loathes the military more than evil-multinational-corporations.

[Sam Cree]

"Federal law against just such action"

I had thought so.

[wimpycat]

There might be valid reasons for terminating his employment, such as if his termination was part of a layoff or job elimination affecting more than just himself. Maybe his department was restructured or eliminated. If other, non-reservist employees were terminated at the same time, I don't think he'll have much of a case.

You can't terminate reservists because of the inconvenience of them being called to active duty, just like you can't terminate someone because they were injured on the job, or because they are pregnant, but that doesn't mean you can't legally terminate reservists on active duty or people out on worker's comp, or pregnant employees.

[AppyPappy]

We also pay the difference while people serve overseas.

[Movemout]

You are absolutely correct. However, I think that it is the wrong thing to do to a marine put in harms way. I would go out of my way to find a placeholder for this marine for when he gets back under any of the circumstances you describe. Legal doesn't equal moral.

[Poohbah]

The most likely account, however, is that they did terminate him because he'd been called to active duty.

[wimpycat]

Well, that's just plain dumb, if they did that. But, this news account makes no mention of any attempt to contact Hyundai to get their side of the story, not even a "Hyundai refused to comment", so I was trying to give them the benefit of the doubt.

[Destructor]

Hyundai just screwed up bigtime!

[Poohbah]

From my experiences dealing with Daewoo and Hyundai, they probably didn't even refuse to comment.

[2nd amendment mama]

just like you can't terminate someone because they were injured on the job,

In CT you can terminate someone while they are fighting a Worker's Comp claim - it happened to me. My doctor ordered me out of work - the company was fighting the claim and they terminated me because they claimed I "refused" come in to work. It was a mess! Since they were fighting the claim they also didn't have to pay me comp while the dispute was going on. The whole mess took almost a year to come to an end. They just hope that you'll run out of money and stop fighting!

[G Larry]

OK folks....24 posts and nobody's asked....

Gloria Allred!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Yeah, she's a real likely supporter of the war & President Bush...
NOT!!!!

[Publius6961]

Shari Moffitt says Hyundai fired her husband, Sgt. Clifford Moffitt, after he was called to active duty.

Hyundai?

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

We can't make up stuff this good.!
They did him a favor.
Why would he want a job with a bankrupt business?

Mr Hyundai, meet Ms Gorafolo...

[jriemer]

If you think Hyundai is bad, check out Fortune's January 22, 2003 expose on Daewoo's former CEO, Kim Woo Choong.

When he went AWOL in 1999, he left his South Korean company with over $65 Billion in debts. He has since been seen in such interesting places as China, Sudan , and Vietnam. He has never been brought back to South Korea for criminal and civil charges. Wanted: Kim Woo Choong

[wimpycat]

That's what I said. In NC, you can terminate someone on worker's comp, you just can't terminate someone because they filed a claim. My company has terminated people on worker's comp, some for performance issues, some for not returning to work even though the doctor released them to work full duty or light duty. The thing is, however, that the company must treat everybody in similar situations the same.

The same general rule of treating everybody the same in similar situations would also apply to a reservist called to active duty. IF this reservist's job was eliminated as part of a restructuring or downsizing--meaning that other non-reservist employees were also terminated at the same time as he was, then this terminated reservist will have a hard time winning any discrimination case.

[DaGman]

They cannot legally fire the guy for leaving for active duty. That's prohibited by federal law and the law is unambiguous. Hundai may claim some other reason for the firing. If so, their timing is terrible.

[RedWhiteBlue]

Another possible layoff scenario might go like this: A company needs to lay off a given number of workers. For the hourly positions, especially union jobs, that means that everyone with x number of years or less seniority has to go. Someone could easily get caught in a layoff in this type situation and it would not be an illegal move by the employer to let them go. In fact, the employer cannot give special treatment to the employee called to active duty or treat them any differently than the others that are laid off based on seniority because they are bound by the layoff rules of the contract that they signed with the union.

However, the article does not use the word "layoff," but says he was "fired." We definitely need more information here before we can say for sure who is at fault, but as stated it does not look good for Hyundai.

[Coop]

But I can't understand why anyone would buy one of their POS cars in the first place...

I don't have a Hyundai, but the company is (much like Chrysler many years ago) winning over customers with an impressive, long-term warranty.

[freekitty]

No Hyuandais in my future.

[Cold Heat]

why anyone would buy one of their POS cars in the first place..

I am a GM man, but my wife has a Hundai. A damn fine car actually.

It is basically a Toyota with a few changes. I believe it is built under a Toyota patent.

[fight_truth_decay]

Would Hyundai like the boycott that would take place?

[ErnBatavia]

Gloria Allred!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

The media whore smelled some nice publicity...for whatever reason, she seems to relish facetime. Lord only knows why, given her Pelosi-esque appearance:

[B4Ranch]

Please name your employer so that we are able to do business with them.

[fight_truth_decay]

Consumer Affairs
1-800-633-5151
7 a.m. - 5 p.m. (PST)

[fight_truth_decay]

I called the company at the above listed phone # and you press 9.

The response is that this is a 'sexual harrassment" issue (one of several) and the news have seen fit to print this and publish names on its own that the company Hyundai had not released.

You can call the company to verify as they know the media has picked up the story.

Respectfully
F_T_D

[fight_truth_decay]

This appears to be the media not printing the whole story or should I say spinning the story? I retract my comment in #37 before knowing more on the case at hand.

Respectfully
F_T_D

[ken5050]

This will be corrected as a "computer error" real soon...Hyundia really meant to promote the guy, with a big pay raise, not terminate him..

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[69ConvertibleFirebird]

Let's throw the book at them.

Throw a Huyndai at them too.

[Tamar1973]

The response is that this is a 'sexual harrassment" issue...

Sounds like Hyundai is trying to cover their buts. If both the Marine and his WIFE worked in the same office, I find it highly unlikely the Marine would have been harrassing anyone.

[Cacique]

Beat me to it. Just got this story in my mail from my cousin.

The picture that came with the story.

[libertylover]

It's Harris Corporation, HRS on the stock exchange. They don't make consumer products, but electronics equipment, particularly communicatins equipment. A lot of this equipment is for the government so it has strong ties with the military already.

[libertylover]

US-lovers site? Sure, why not. Harris.com is the company's website. Hmmm, for the independent verification, try the local newspaper, Florida Today, flatoday.com. It's kinda old news but maybe they have archives.

[2timothy3.16]

http://www.christianpatriot.com/us_haters.htm

http://www.christianpatriot.com/us_supporters.htm