Air National Guard Member Employment Rights Lawsuit

In a January 19, 2010 Press Release, lawyers with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that they reached a settlement in a DOJ lawsuit against the City of Milwaukee on behalf of a detective in the Milwaukee Police Department, alleging the City violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA).  See, http://www.justice.gov .  According to the DOJ Press Release, the settlement calls for the City to provide the detective with a retroactive promotion date in the rank of detective, as well as $21,190 in backpay, retoactive seniority and other benefits that flow from the date of adjustment.  In this regard, the DOJ USERRA lawsuit alleges that the City violated USERRA when it did not provide the employee, while he was a police officer, with the opportunity to take a make-up examination for promotion to detective that he missed while on active duty military service, thereby denying him the seniority, status and compensation he would have received but for his active duty service in the military.  As further stated in the Press Release, the City subsequently promoted him to detective after he passed the next scheduled administration of the examination, but the delay still resulted in his loss of pay, seniority and other benefits, including eligibility for future promotions.  A DOJ Civil Rights Division lawyer quoted in the Press Release stated that “No member of our armed services should be disadvantaged because he or she answered a call to duty.”

Additional information about USERRA may be found at www.servicemembers.gov .