With reservists away from their jobs more, some employers are balking at holding those jobs for them when they return, as federal law requires. Others are laying off or firing reservists and guardsmen, or making things so uncomfortable they quit, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation found.
The number of complaints filed with the U.S. Labor Department accusing employers of job discrimination against reservists and guardsmen went up 38 percent from the military buildup that began after the Sept. 11 attacks until 2005 -- from 908 complaints in 2001 to 1,465. It dipped last year to 1,320 -- a decline the Labor Department attributes to its aggressive efforts to get the word out to employers about the law. Illinois has seen a similar pattern of complaints.
'Laws are weak'
People who try to remain in the military part time sometimes face pressure at work to either leave the military or leave their jobs, lawsuits and interviews with returning reservists and investigators show.
"As long as reservists are getting deployed as we are, employers are going to get hip to the law and figure out how to beat it," says Tice Ridley, 33, an Army reservist who plans to quit as an investigator for the Cook County public defender's office and go full time with the Army.
The Iraq war veteran filed a job-discrimination complaint in 2004, telling the Labor Department his union president was told Ridley wouldn't be promoted because "it would hurt the efficiency of the office if he were deployed."
The public defender's office denied that. Labor Department investigators didn't find any violations. His case remains in union arbitration.
"The laws are weak," says Ridley. "If that's all we have, as soldiers we're screwed."
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Reservists fight to keep jobs
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