One of Ours

The Seattle Times carries this report on the employment problems of Dana Beaudine -- an Oregon National Guardsman who fought in Iraq, was wounded by a mortar attack, and diagnosed with some residual disability -- who has run into trouble with his recalcitrant employer who refuses to reemploy him in accordance with federal law. The Department of Labor has gotten involved, saying that Securitas is in violation of federal law in its treatment of CPL Beaudine. Yet, the company refuses to do the right thing -- even though it's a security contractor with lots of government business, and even though it's won an award from DoD for its treatment of reservists...

...Employment law issues are never pretty -- there are usually unclean hands on both sides. But this looks like a pretty clear case of bad corporate citizenship, and I personally hope that Securitas gets slammed by DOL with an enforcement action that costs them thousands of dollars in legal fees and many more thousands in damages...

...the Seattle Times reports that there have been 3,200 USERRA complaints filed with the Department of Labor since Sept. 11, out of roughly 360,000 reservists mobilized since that time. That's an awfully large number of bad corporate citizens, and I hope they all get what they deserve from the Labor Department and the Justice Department...