Firing military reservists

January 24, 2007 1:55 PM

Fired for serving her country - while reports about reservists losing their jobs upon returning home are nothing new, the story of one reservist and her fight against her previous employer has caught the attention of the national media (see "Coming Up" teaser), in addition to the local news (video link). Meet Lt. Col. Debra Muhl, a nurse and hospital administrator currently suing Sutter Health, her former employer, which less than three years ago promoted her military service as an asset to the organization (7MB pdf link - see page 5).
posted by dbolll (11 comments total)

Yay for stop loss... looks like both parties have a grievance with the government, to me.
posted by eparchos at 2:27 PM on January 24, 2007

We need a special draft for people like Richard Gray (her former supervisor). It's simple you fire someone for getting deployed; you get drafted and go into a special unit right on the front lines.
posted by humanfont at 2:58 PM on January 24, 2007

Usually the ones criticized for voicing dissent with troops are other ordinary people.

When a rich, powerful employ practice a form of dissent much harder, much more effective and damaging than mere words, silence surrounds their action.

I am well aware that the chickenhawks aren't going to show their outrage, as sissies gasp and sweat in fear of being confronted at home for dissenting an employer.

In her complaint, Muhl alleges that her supervisor, Richard Gray, the cardiac program's medical director, found her deployments frustrating, at one point instructing her to file a complaint with Congress seeking to get out of the military.

And if it is true, which is likely because all the problems would have landend on her shoulder, the employer should be found guilty of conspiring against the success of mission in Iraq.

Hey , but guess what :) you went to Iraq, YOUR problem. If the employer can legally get rid of you, don't expect power friendly governments (all of them) to give a rat about your ass.
posted by elpapacito at 3:13 PM on January 24, 2007

Video link to story about Ms. Muhl on ABC's World News Tonight from January 24th.
posted by dbolll at 6:02 PM on January 24, 2007

That's disgusting. We'll be seeing a lot of this as Iraq drags on.

In brighter news, Sears is actually going above and beyond.
posted by amberglow at 6:46 PM on January 24, 2007

Back in the day... I was drafted to go to 'Nam.. my employer didn't much care for it...and, when I returned years later and said.."give me back my job", they didn't much care for that either...but ...they gave me my job back..

But, things are different today... perhaps we should contact someone about this, what do you say..

or...we could just grip and bitch here on metafilter....
posted by HuronBob at 8:02 PM on January 24, 2007

or...perhaps "gripe"
posted by HuronBob at 8:03 PM on January 24, 2007

I don't see why a company has to wear a person's personal choices that interfere with their ability to contribute at work.
posted by wilful at 9:09 PM on January 24, 2007

I don't see why a company has to wear a person's personal choices that interfere with their ability to contribute at work.

And I don't see why companies get to enjoy the benefits of our soldiers' labor without paying them. From now on, I say let private companies fight their own wars! If an oil company wants to break up OPEC, let THEM invade Iraq!
posted by eparchos at 12:43 AM on January 25, 2007

So, if you are a company how do you prove that an employee's termination was due to economics, performance, or other reasons and not due to military service? I mean, I understand that as an employer you are taking on a risk when you hire a reservist, but does that risk extend to the inability to fire someone for any reason whatsoever when they have been press-ganged into service by the USG?
posted by moonbiter at 2:20 AM on January 25, 2007

That's just it, moonbiter--you can't, unless you can catch them sending emails about it or memos. It's true for age and sex and orientation discrimination too, and makes all lawsuits against corps really really hard to win.
posted by amberglow at 3:17 PM on January 25, 2007