Fired reservist awarded $542,000

[Ediacara]

Source: Seattle Times

By Christina Siderius

Seattle Times staff reporter

Firing an Air Force reservist two years ago is costing a local family-owned heating business more than a half million dollars.

A Seattle federal jury today awarded Gerald Delay $542,000, saying that Seattle-based Ace Heating booted Delay for asserting his reservist employment rights and also defamed him in paperwork.

Delay, a Federal Way resident who had been working at Ace Heating since 2000, was called to serve in Afghanistan and Iraq in February 2003. When he returned to Seattle about two years later, he found that his hours had been cut and given to another employee.

In court, Delay testified that he had complained several times to the company's owner, Tim Hayes.

Read more: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003884679_webreservist14m.html