For the fourth time this year, ROA was invited to testify before House Veterans Affairs, this time before the subcommittee on economic opportunity that is chaired by Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D-S.D.). Two panels at the hearings included administration officials from the Department of Labor, the Congressional Research Service, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The third panel included six associations - ROA, the American Legion, VFW, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Paralyzed Veterans of America, and the National Guard Association of the United States.
ROA’s legislative director, CAPT Marshall Hanson, overran his five minutes limit by seven seconds. He highlighted that ROA’s law center has received 2000 requests for information on legal issues during its first 10 months. He emphasized the reemployment challenge of serving Guard and Reserve members who return from deployment. ROA was the only association to bring up the need to improve the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERA). CAPT Hanson’s oral testimony included the need to include technical and apprentice programs in the new GI Bill, and that veterans need assistance in converting their military skills and experience into a civilian resume.
4 comments:
There's not much more important to a returning Reservist than to get back to "normal" as soon as possible. After serving on three mobilizations which saw me deployed to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and to Iraq, my job was eliminated "to achieve cost savings." I proved the school district that eliminated my job actually lost money by getting rid of my position, but they refused to even give me a hearing even though I was a tenured administrator. My lawsuit is underway, including a USERRA claim in Federal court. I talk about this and more in my newly released book, "Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay: A Memoir of a Citizen Warrior," about my time at Gitmo as the ranking U.S. Army Medical Department officer from February to June 2002. I tell the real story of detention and medical duty at Gitmo as a Reservist, and what we go through before, during, and after deployments. http://www.strategicpublishinggroup.com/title/SavingGraceAtGuantanamoBay.html
Recently my husband has returned to his civilian job after being on active duty for over 2yrs.While on duty he incurred an injury and was was d/c because of this injury. He now has a disability and his civilian employer has stated they are not required to follow USERRA per thier company's attorney. We have involved ESGR and also the Federal Dept. of Labor and they are now starting an investigation. His job is a Union shop and they have stated that the issues have nothing to do with them and are backing off on defending him. He was also told by his Union Rep that it was heard thru the grapevine that they (his employer) was looking to get rid of him asap. They have repeatedly told him that if need be they would put him in a diff. department but would have to drop his pay to match that of the dept. . They have been sent a copy of USERRA laws by an ESGR represenative and told they can not do this along with many other issues they are attempting to do. My husband was sent to the eployers physician for an employee physical and was told he was 100% and could do his job fully with out limitations.This evaluation consisted of him closing his eyes and touching his nose, bending to touch his toes, breathalizer and drug test. This in fact was a CDL physical to make sure he could keep his CDL license which is a requirement of his job (which he passed). He tried to give the Dr. a copy of reports from the military Dr.s stating his disability and limitations and was told she didn t want them. And his employer stated they will not except those notes and it needs to come from a civilian Dr. and has stated several times that there is no "light duty" at this place of employment. He has told them over and over that this is not a case of "light duty" but a "disability" His job is very physical and in the dept. he works in is capable of accomidating his limitations. The ESGR rep. has spoken with the head of Human Resources recently and stated he understood these laws and would work with my husband in accomidating his disability and understood they had to follow these laws. The harassment started the first day he returned with an unexpected "meeting" telling him he had 2weeks to decide what he wanted to do and if he needed to go to a different dept. he could let his union know of his intentions (if he wanted to go to a different dept.) and put him there "if" a job was available. Prior to even returning to work my husband had conversations with head of Human Resources and he had said such things as "I only have to hold your job til you return" and threatened on a few occasions that he should fire him. We have sent letters to them stating when he was returning to work and when he did return he was doing so with a disability.This is very stressing on both of us, my husband is the primary income in our home and we are a family of 5. This is a company that gets State and Federal funding to run.If anyone has any advise on dealing with this, would be very much welcome. This is not something we can do on our own. Thank you
To 7junior2 - Please contact CAPT Sam Wright at the Service Members Law Center. He can help you with your issue. His contact info is 800-809-9448 Ext. 730 or swright@roa.org
Thank you for the info. very much appreciated .
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