Originally Posted by
KC10 FATboy
Wow, I'm not sure this would be a legal question to ask in a formal interview. They can not discriminate based on your military status. You seem to have shrugged it off so it probably doesn't matter to you now. However, I think you would have one heck of a lawsuit.
I went to a job fair and spoke with an HR person for a company that I will not mention publically. When I told her that I was a military pilot, her first question to me was "do you plan to fly for the reserves?" I was a little bit taken back by the question. I answered, yes. She had a obvious frown on her face. The rest of the interview was pointless. She didn't even want to take my resume, although I had witnessed them taken others.
This is the fallacy of USERRA. Even if you could swing suing a prospective employer due to a violation of USERRA (unlikely), you'd be hard pressed to maintain employment at the outfit you just sued! If you think your career progression on said employer is going to be "ops normal normal" I got a bridge to sell you.
As our collective experiences clearly demonstrate, employers consistenly wipe their with USERRA when it comes to hiring. Look at my academia job example. Were they willing to offer me the job? Of course. USERRA compliance, check. After that, they were going to make my life hell when it came to availability conflicts and at the end of said tenure review period? You know what was gonna happen. People have been denied tenure for less. Good luck proving it in court. The reality is that most employers in this economy have the upper hand and USERRA is hardly a protectorate for the Servicemember. All an employer has to do is disclose their availability requirements (they don't even have to bring up the military at all) before handing you the offer and you're screwed, you better not take the job, cause you're gonna lose. The sheer miniscule USERRA precedent cases speaks to this. There's a million ways to undermine, underemploy, retard promotions and otherwise unincentivize your employment at said shop and stay a nautical mile away from USERRA. The Guard/Reserves is truly a sacrifice nowadays and I don't blame any TR from pulling chocks and taking care of their family if civilian employment is more advantageous to their livelihood.