Betrayed? Citizen soldiers lose jobs; U.S. government biggest offender

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-citizen-soldiers-20130506,0,6250161.story



I felt betrayed,” said Pierre Saint-Fleur, a former Fresno County mental health worker who said he was forced into early retirement after three deployments to Iraq as a military chaplain in the California National Guard.

Betrayed? Citizen soldiers lose jobs; U.S. government biggest offender
By Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times
May 5, 2013, 5:02 p.m.

The jobs of the nation's citizen soldiers are supposed to be safe while they are serving their country: Federal law does not allow employers to penalize service members because of their military duties.

Yet every year, thousands of National Guard and Reserve troops coming home from Afghanistan and elsewhere find they have been replaced, demoted, denied benefits or seniority.

Government agencies are among the most frequent offenders, accounting for about a third of the more than 15,000 complaints filed with federal authorities since the end of September 2001, records show. Others named in the cases include some of the biggest names in American business, such as Wal-Mart and United Parcel Service.

With good jobs still scarce in many states, the illegal actions have contributed to historically high joblessness among returning National Guard and Reserve members — as high as 50% in some California units — and created a potential obstacle to serving.