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

[lonestarnot]

1. Heh heh heh!

:toast: to that employment lawyer and his/her staff!

[rusty quoin]

2. Inglesias should be able to get a similar settlement..

[Kagemusha]

4. Why would he?

Seriously, I've seen this issue come up before and I can't understand it. Sure, if the law applies to US Attorney posts. I doubt the law does apply to them. They're not normal jobs.

Hey, if the law does apply to that, I'm all for the man getting compensation. But it wouldn't remove Bush's right to fire him, even so.

[feloneous cat]

3. QUICK! Get it converted to Euros!

You don't want to lose that money...

[slampoet]

5. HEY Ace Heating !! Grow up a be a REAL American Company.

Apparently you DON'T support the troops.

Move to Canada.

[iaviate1]

6. If Corporations are pissed off at the absent employees...

They ought to stop donating to pro-war politicians.

[Mnpaul]

7. What else would you expect from a Republican?

HAYES, TIMOTHY M
SEATTLE,WA 98188
12/4/2002
$300
National Republican Congressional Cmte

HAYES, TIMOTHY M MR
TUKWILA,WA 98188
ACE HEATING INC/PRESIDENT
3/10/2006
$500
National Republican Congressional Cmte

HAYES, TIMOTHY M MR
TUKWILA,WA 98188
ACE HEATING INC/PRESIDENT
1/8/2004
$250
National Republican Congressional Cmte

HAYES, TIMOTHY M MR
TUKWILA,WA 98188
ACE HEATING INC/PRESIDENT
2/9/2004
$250
National Republican Congressional Cmte

HAYES, WILLIAM R
SEATTLE,WA 98125
5/1/1996
$250
National Republican Congressional Cmte

http://www.opensecrets.org

[rpannier]

8. Why am I not surprised

[LeftCoast]

10. Excellent sleuthing!

:thumbsup:

[LeftCoast]

9. Owner Tim Hayes is a republican?

Way to support those troops, republicans!

[AnneD]

11. When I was a Reservist....

I had to use my vacation to cover my call up. What would they do now? This was with a large company (Gulf Oil). Had I continued, no telling how that would have killed my career.

Many a small business owned by Reservists has gone under because of these multiple deployments for 15 month tours. The Reserves were designed as a back-up, not as a primary defense. They are fighting on the cheap and cutting corners. We ar not making the necessary sacrifices that a country must do when it is war. This is one reason I content that this country in general and the military in particular have done irreparable damage to our country's defense system. People will NOT volunteer because the government has welshed on a deal and broken a trust with their soldiers.

I am glad for this soldier. But for every one success story, there are plenty of soldiers that find themselves in a situation where they have been replaced or they have been shunted into 'comparable positions so unpleasant that they quite or and excuse is drummed up to fire them. This guy got lucky.