A Washington state firefighter and a U.S. Naval reservist are suing their employers for allegedly discriminating against them based on their military service.
Brett Martinson, who joined the Washington Army National Guard in March 2002, has worked at Central Pierce Fire & Rescue for over 23 years. He contends fire department supervisors told him he was not selected for a promotion “due to your status in the military,” according to a complaint filed Jan. 13 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
Central Pierce Fire & Rescue did not respond to The News Tribune’s request for comment.
Ana Lugo, a reservist in the U.S. Navy, says she was fired from her job as a teacher at New Start High School in the Highline School District in King County because of her military service.
In August 2016, Lugo, says she was “interrogated” by her supervisor about her military service, according to court documents. The supervisor asked Lugo whether she wanted to teach at New Start or be in the Navy, saying “only one of these is your full-time job and it isn’t the Navy, this is your bread and butter, this is what pays your bills.”
In a statement to The News Tribune, Highline School District said it supports employees’ commitment to military duty but disagrees with the allegations in Lugo’s complaint.
Firefighter’s complaint
Since 2002, Martinson has been deployed at least 10 times with the Guard, including a year-long deployment to Afghanistan. According to the complaint, Martinson met with Central Pierce human resources, payroll, the assistant chief of operations and emergency medical services and a union representative prior to his deployment to Afghanistan because he’d previously been denied an accommodation for the lieutenant’s exam.
“Given his prior experience regarding lieutenant testing, Mr. Martinson requested to take a make-up upon his return if there was testing held while he was on deployment,” the complaint reads.
While on deployment in 2016, at least six other employees were promoted to lieutenant. When he returned, Martinson was denied the chance to take a make-up exam, according to his lawsuit.
Martinson says Central Pierce Fire & Rescue violated the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994, which protects service members’ civilian employment rights. Specifically, the act protects service members from discrimination based on their service and allows the employee to be absent up to five years for military service without retaliation.
“People say they support the troops and aren’t anti-military, but their tunes change when issues come up and people have to be absent for deployments,” said Matthew Crotty, an attorney for Martinson.
Martinson is seeking damages including service credits he says he should have accrued towards retirement and a trial by jury to determine whether Central Pierce Fire & Rescue violated USERRA.
Complaint against school district
Crotty and attorney Thomas Jarrard also are representing Lugo, who says Highline School District violated USERRA when it refused to reinstate her as a teacher at New Start High School.
In June 2017, Lugo was put on active duty for 330 days. In 2019 her orders were extended through January 2020. When she told her employer she would be on an extended deployment, she was informed her employment had already been terminated for failing to maintain a teaching certificate in the state of Washington.
“School districts in Washington state are prohibited from offering contracts to educators who do not have a current certificate,” Catherine Carbone Rogers, chief communications officer for Highline Schools, told The News Tribune. “Certificates are issued by the state, and the process for maintaining the certificate is between the state and the educator.”
When she asked for her job back upon returning from deployment, the district refused and said she’d have to apply for another open position. According to court documents, the district hired new teachers in 2020, but she was not reemployed.
Before filing a lawsuit against Highline School District on Feb. 5 , 2021, Lugo reached out the Employer Support for Guard and Reserve, or ESGR, an agency whose job is to provide resources for and resolve issues between employers and military reserve employees.
Phil Sanders, the vice-chairman for ESGR in Washington, told The News Tribune about three-quarters of ESGR cases in 2020 were resolved without having to bring a lawsuit.
“We’re not attorneys out there advocating for service members,” Sanders said. “Our job is to be a neutral party providing information. A lot of the time, these things amount to a misunderstanding or a misinterpretation of what the law requires.”
In Lugo’s case, ESGR was unable to resolve the issue so she filed a complaint with the Department of Labor, Veterans Employment and Training Service who found that the district violated USERRA when they refused to reemploy Lugo.
The district agreed to rehire her, but only if she waved her USERRA rights and agreed not to sue the school district.
Lugo is seeking damages and a trial by jury to determine whether Highline violated USERRA.
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