Protecting the Rights at Home of Those Who Defend Freedom Abroad

When Mark J. Meyer, of Readlyn, Iowa, completed his active duty service with the United States Marine Corps he began reserve duty and started a non-military job. Mark was a great employee—he received excellent performance review ratings, even the highest possible rating. He was quickly promoted to Assistant Store Manager and eventually to Store Manager. In 2003 Mark was named 2003 Cedar Valley Area Employee of the Year.

In May of 2004 Mark received word that his reserve unit was being activated and deployed to Iraq. Mark personally notified his supervisor that he had been called up to active duty to go to Iraq, so that they would have notice that he would need a temporary leave of absence from his job in order to meet his military obligations. Later that same day his supervisor filled out a performance review of Mark that was very poor and wrote in it that he would be terminated. Two days later Mark was fired and escorted from the building.

In order to have income until he was sent to Iraq Mark re-activated himself early and went to work at the Rock Island base. During this time Mark was engaged, and when he received word that he was being deployed to Iraq they moved up their wedding date so that they could marry before he left. Because he had been fired and was forced to re-activate early, Mark and his new wife, Destiny (pictured above on their wedding day) were not able to go on a honeymoon and spent the first few months of marriage commuting 3 hours to see each other only on weekends.

Mark is pursuing a complaint against his former employer because under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), a federal law, an employer can not discriminate if an employee is called into military active duty. Additionally, the state of Iowa has a Military Code that imposes criminal charges if an employer fires or denies leave to a Reservist who is ordered to temporary active duty.

His attorney, Ronnie Podolefsky, is outraged: "The men and women being activated and deployed to Iraq deserve the assurance that the jobs this takes them from will be there when they come home. It's not only contemptible to fire someone called up to serve our nation, it's against the law."

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