A complaint has been filed against the City of Plymouth defending the employment rights of Air Force reservist Robert D. DeLee under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994.
United States Attorney David Capp says USERRA requires employers to reemploy returning service members to the position they would have held, had their employment not been interrupted by military service. USERRA also requires employers to provide the employee with all benefits of employment they would have been entitled to as well had the employee not been called to active duty.
The case has been filed in the South Bend Division of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, and the complaint alleges that Plymouth violated DeLee’s rights by refusing to pay him longevity pay after he returned from eight months of active duty in the Air Force Reserve. DeLee had worked as a patrolman for the Plymouth Police Department since 1999, and was mobilized for duty between September 2010 and May 2011.
After he returned, the city reemployed him in his former position but refused to pay him the longevity pay that he would have otherwise received.
Capp says the United States Attorney’s Office has a “complete and unwavering commitment to protecting the employment rights of military reservists when they return from active duty.”
