Did his duty - then lost his job (Reservist fired by IBM)

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/289803p-247960c.html

Michael Warren, a native of Port Jefferson, L.I., is suing International Business Machines Corp. for firing him because since 9/11 he's been called up too often by the Army Reserves.
Today, Warren serves his country in a time of war as he wages a second David vs. Goliath war against one of the giants of corporate America.

Warren's attorney Brendan Chao says IBM is in violation of Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act and the New York State Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act, laws that protect reservists from being fired for military service.

After Chao filed suit on behalf of Warren, IBM moved for dismissal in summary judgment. IBM says Warren, an Internet security expert, was fired as part of a "zero-tolerance policy" after leaving a "threatening" voice message for a female co-worker in London.

"Liz, this is Michael Warren," his message said, after playing phone tag involving a big bank deal. "I'm gonna try you on your mobile. Pretty soon I'm gonna hunt you down and kill you. I'm gonna get on a plane. ... And I'm going to, um, errrrh, I'm going to track you down. I'll talk to you in a minute. Bye-bye."

[w4rma]

1. IBM was sold to some Chinese outfit, weren't they? (nt)

[Coastie for Truth]

4. No Just the PC assembly business.

Just the PC assembly business-- which was a very small part of the company -- losing money almost since the beginning -- and had pretty much been off shored and out sourced (both in the US and over seas).

They have been looking for a buyer since 1993 when Akers was fired.

(I just got my annual report over the weekend)

[Tempest]

9. 10,000 U.S. IBM employees will be affected by sale

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49474-2004Dec8.html

Headquarters for Lenovo's PC business will be in New York, but its principal operations will be in Beijing and here in North Carolina, where 1,900 of the 10,000 IBM employees expected to switch to Lenovo now work.



China has said it may close down all U.S. operations, and the operations of all foreign IBM sites, and move them to China.

[Blue_Tires]

2. if he really made that message then he

doesn't have a legal leg to stand on...these days you just don't leave a message like that, even if you're good friends and it was in 'lighthearted fun' ...believe me, i've lost a job before over something i thought was funny and lighthearted (don't worry, it was a shit job anyways)

[RamboLiberal]

3. The judge sided with him

from the article:

After listening to the tape, Manhattan federal Judge Denny Chin ruled in favor of Warren, and scheduled trial for May 9.

"A reasonable jury could find that Warren was joking when he left the voice mail," Chin wrote, "and that discharging an employee with an excellent eight-year employment record was exceedingly, and irrationally, harsh."

[Mairead]

6. Not according to the judge

The recipient stated that she didn't feel threatened.

And IBM kept him on til after a particular deal was wrapped up, which the judge found 'egregious'.

[kiraboo]

5. Not only would I have him fired, but I'd file a harrassment

complaint as well, if he did indeed make the call.

[Dogmudgeon]

7. The he should be glad he didn't call you

The article makes the circumstances quite clear, and it wasn't harassment by a long shot. They were looking for a reason to can the guy, and right after he made the company some serious money in a financial deal.

--p!

[MARALE]

8. I'm sorry

Nobody leaves a threatening phone message by saying "bye-bye". It was obiviously a joke, playing phone tag can get that way sometimes.

[RamboLiberal]

10. Exactly - I imagine this kind of kidding goes on in the Pentagon

and CIA.

BTW, I'm rethinking I better be more careful the next time I tell a user I have to kill them (Unix term).

[me b zola]

11. This has been quite common post 9/11

I have know people who were out right threatened that thier employers could not "hold" their jobs for them. When a friend of mine took a letter from her commanding officer explaining the law and offering to speak to the employer if they had any questions, her boss then went on a crusade to find fault with her work so to find reason for termination before her deployment.

Loss of position or promotion is another thing that employers do to discriminate against reservists/guardsmen. I know an officer in the reserves who is a Federal Marshall in his regular career. After a deployment the officer returned to find the promotion that was supposed to be his before he deployed was given to another employee. This is in diredt violation of federal law, more than a little irony that the federal government doesn't respect their own laws.

[Yosie]

12. DOD and DOJ are NOT prosecuting these cases

This was a relatively rare problem in the past - usually came up with respect to the "two weeks active duty for training" absence. The DOD would detail one or two Reserve JAG Corps lawyers who could take the time away from their civilian practices. The DOD usually won. (I did two of these cases)

Sadly, DOJ did not develop any expertise in this area.They could rely on JAG Corps Reserve lawyers.

After Desert Storm there were a lot more of these cases. Still handled the same way, the DOD would detail one or two Reserve JAG Corps lawyers who could take the time away from their civilian practices. Again, the DOD usually won.

But in this war -- with more recalls, and with longer recalls, neither DOD nor DOJ is bringing these cases, and DOD is not authorizing Reserve JAG Corps lawyers to take thses cases, and the "union decertification" lawyers have found a new niche specialty -- Veterans' Reemployment Defense (defending the employer). And employers are getting in earlier and building a case that the reservist was fired "for cause."

And, my take is that "management seminars" are telling employers to go back over a reservists employment history to build a defense to a Veterans Reemployment suit.

As usual - no matter how you slice it - the last guy in the last rank is getting screwed while Halliburton and the defense contractors grow fat (but still can't supply armor for the Hummers).

[VegasWolf]

13. Looks like some IBM managers are going to take the hit on this one.n/t