Edited for brevity.
Automotive supply chain Pep Boys fired a Tucson store manager because his military Reserve duties took him away from work, according to a federal lawsuit filed here. It may not be an isolated case. Several other reservists fired from Pep Boys in Tucson and Pennsylvania have contacted a military advocacy group with similar complaints. In the Tucson case, Erik Balodis, then a store manager at the 7227 E. 22nd St. Pep Boys, was fired after being called to a U.S. Naval Reserve exercise in June 2002. Balodis, a father of two young children, was unable to find work for five months. He eventually found work as a store manager at Big Lots in October 2002 but by then the family's finances were in ruins. In February, his family was forced to sell its four-bedroom East Side home and file for bankruptcy. Balodis, who is stationed in South Korea, now earns about $20,000 less a year, said his wife, Kathy.
| Ummm... There are laws against this sort of thing, for precisely this reason. Pep Boys is going to be giving Balodis a lot of money in the near future. And I'm all for it... |
Under the federal Uniformed Services Employment and Re-employment Rights Act and Arizona state law, an employer may not terminate an employee who is called to active duty. In the lawsuit, Balodis' attorney, Andrea Watters, said Pep Boys fired Balodis because his duties with the Navy were keeping him from work. The suit says he told the company he was being called to training in June of last year. On the day he reported for duty, he was told by Pep Boys that we was being terminated for "job abandonment."
Sounds like a boycott is in order. |