bobdina
11-27-2009, 02:16 PM
Firm Must pay Vet $445G Over Firing
November 27, 2009
The Sun, Lowell, Massachusetts
BOSTON -- A federal jury has awarded an Iraq war veteran $445,000 in a military discrimination suit against a Tyngsboro, Mass., fire-safety company.
A jury in Boston's U.S. District Court found that Stephen Fryer, a member of the Massachusetts Army National Guard, was discriminated against by the owners of A.S.A.P. Fire and Safety Corp. Inc. of 90 Progress Ave., Tyngsboro.
Fryer worked for the company when he was deployed to Iraq in February 2007. After he returned from Iraq in May 2008, the company's owners, Joseph Sheedy and Brian Cote, did not reinstate Fryer in his previous job, as is required by the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, according to court documents.
USERRA is a federal law that protects the employment rights of military personnel.
Fryer, 43, of Jaffrey, N.H., was rehired by the company in July 2008 to a lower position in the company. After requesting reinstatement to the job he held before being deployed to Iraq, Fryer was fired.
After the verdict, Fryer released a prepared statement: "This lawsuit is not just for me and my family, but for all members of the armed services and their families. When soldiers come home from fighting in the Middle East, they should not have to fight their employers to get their jobs back."
Sheedy and Cote could not be reached by telephone for comment yesterday.
After the evidence portion of the trial closed Monday afternoon, Fryer received another deployment notice. He and his National
Guard unit will be deployed to Afghanistan next summer, according to a statement from his lawyer's office.
November 27, 2009
The Sun, Lowell, Massachusetts
BOSTON -- A federal jury has awarded an Iraq war veteran $445,000 in a military discrimination suit against a Tyngsboro, Mass., fire-safety company.
A jury in Boston's U.S. District Court found that Stephen Fryer, a member of the Massachusetts Army National Guard, was discriminated against by the owners of A.S.A.P. Fire and Safety Corp. Inc. of 90 Progress Ave., Tyngsboro.
Fryer worked for the company when he was deployed to Iraq in February 2007. After he returned from Iraq in May 2008, the company's owners, Joseph Sheedy and Brian Cote, did not reinstate Fryer in his previous job, as is required by the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, according to court documents.
USERRA is a federal law that protects the employment rights of military personnel.
Fryer, 43, of Jaffrey, N.H., was rehired by the company in July 2008 to a lower position in the company. After requesting reinstatement to the job he held before being deployed to Iraq, Fryer was fired.
After the verdict, Fryer released a prepared statement: "This lawsuit is not just for me and my family, but for all members of the armed services and their families. When soldiers come home from fighting in the Middle East, they should not have to fight their employers to get their jobs back."
Sheedy and Cote could not be reached by telephone for comment yesterday.
After the evidence portion of the trial closed Monday afternoon, Fryer received another deployment notice. He and his National
Guard unit will be deployed to Afghanistan next summer, according to a statement from his lawyer's office.