Has anyone ever been mobilized as a reservist while you were in the pool waiting for a class date? Any ideas how it works legally/practically?

 

Legally you have no protection because you are not currently employed at the pool company.

Some companies may honor your pool status, and give you an available class date post-MOB...you'd have to ask them about that (not sure I'd want to have that conversation though).

I would ask the military for a deferral on the MOB, this is certainly the kind of life situation which *should* qualify. The demand signal for MOBs is pretty low right now, it's not like they won't be able to find someone.

If it's a good legacy airline job, I would pull out all stops to avoid the MOB. Unlike AD, the reserves will not provide for your family in the long run so you need to take responsibility for that. It's not reasonable for them to expect all reserves to be available 100% of time...this is one of those times, so don't feel bad about it.

 

It's not a good thing. You have no standing under the law. Do all you can to make it to the first day of class then go on mil leave. If not you will have to defer starting at the airline and will lose seniority as well as other benefits.

 

When I was in Korea, I ran into an Army officer with Naval Aviator wings. I was thinking this is gotta be good, so I asked him what his story was.

He was a Marine Corps pilot who got out of the Marine Corps and got hired into a pool at Southwest - he had the 737 type. Somehow he ended up going into the Army Reserve after leaving the Marine Corps - I don't remember how the details of that happened. Then 9/11 happened and he got mobilized and by the time it was time to demobilize, he was pretty close to retirement, and he had lost his spot in the Southwest pool, so his plan was to stay active to get the 20 and then figure out what to do.

 

As others have said, dodge duck dip dive and dodge, at all costs. Right now you're nothing more than a "maybe." You need to get into a class and get a seniority number before you have any protection. That year (or however long your deployment will be) will have a downstream effect on the rest of your career. Call in all favors, donate a kidney or offspring, volunteer for an even worse deployment in two years. If your front office is cool explain the situation and see if they can help. Depending on what pool you're swimming in, you may loose your spot. If it does come to pass that you can't get out of it, then work with the hiring at whatever airline you're at and see what you can do to stay in the pool.

 

IF you must mob,
USERRA does protect you from discrimination on hiring based on military service. IF they toss you from the pool based solely on your military service mob, you may have a discrimination complaint.
Example: "Hey, I have military service and cannot be available in the pool status until XYZ", IF they send a letter dropping you from the pool, and the date corresponds to your informing them, you have some evidence of discrimination for DOL VETS.
You have the burden of proof, so would need to try to find if they drop other pool applicants for non military reasons. You could attempt to compel this from the airline in your complaint.

Here is your reference under USERRA

"No employer may deny a person initial employment, reemployment, retention in employment, promotion, or any benefit of employment based on the person’s membership, application for membership, performance of service, application to perform service, or obligation for service in the uniformed services.
38 U.S.C. 4311(a)

Good luck, you do have some USERRA protection, but you also have the burden (challenging) but not impossible.
Good luck
SD

 

Unfortunately if you have MOB orders in hand or have been notified(orders pending) there isn't much you can do to get out. I just returned from AFG (10 month MOB). I did research the employer deferment prior to my mobilization and there are few cases where the Navy( I assume you're USN) would defer a MOB for civilian employment reasons. I do know folks who have gone IRR when their name was placed on RMP. It's a crap sandwich either way you slice it.

I do know that many MOBs to AFG are being cancelled, PM me if you need more insight there. As for the overall demand signal for MOBs...yes it is reducing in AFG but the MOBs to HOA/Bahrain/QATAR and CCDR staffs remain. Sourcing a MOB short notice isn't an easy proposition especially if its a 13XX requirement.

Best of luck!

 

Thanks for all the replies. I'll try to remember and update with the final outcome.