Guardsman reinstated in Postal Service; cleans up

| December 19, 2012

Stars & Stripes reports that SGM Richard Erickson was reinstated by an administrative judge from the Merit Systems Protection Board after he was fired by the Postal Service for “excessive use of military service”, whatever that is. He was fired back in 2000;

Garry Wade Klein, the administrative judge from the Merit Systems Protection Board, ruled Erickson must be reinstated and compensated no more than 60 days after the decision becomes final Jan. 14 pending no further legal action by USPS, which will have to follow the order even if it decides to appeal.

The legal proceedings have dragged on for years as USPS continued to pursue the case even after Erickson won two decisions before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

When the USPS refused to reinstate Erickson in 2000, the father of three from Ft. Meyers, Fla., re-enlisted in the National Guard and deployed to Afghanistan as part of a Special Forces team. He has received over 35 medals and decorations, including three combat distinguished valor awards and the Purple Heart.

By the way, the Postal Service owes him over $2 million in back pay. And they have to pay his hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees. They couldn’t fire Newman or Cliff Claven, but they thought they could fire a Guardsman.

Category: National Guard

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Doc Bailey

Good luck getting Justice from the Federal Government anymore

Whiskey Brave

Once again, the ASSHATS of the USPS–is there ANYTHING they can do right? Obviously, the answer is NO.

Just Plain Jason

Holy shit…I got nothing…

Ex-PH2

Is this why the Post Office is going broke?

Blackshoe

“By the way, the Postal Service owes him over $2 million in back pay. ”

That’s a heck of a lot of First-Class stamps to try and sell.

Winter Soldier

I am not a lawyer, nor do I play one on tv. However, short of someone coming out and saying “this is due to your military service” it is difficult to get anything under USSERRA.

rkeen78

“By the way, the Postal Service owes him over $2 million in back pay. ”

12 years, $2 Mil? This dude was making over $160 k/yr with the post office, or am I missing something?

Karen

The $2 million is back pay, benefits and the legal fees together.

UnicornDick

I’ve met SGM Erickson. Super great guy – good for him!

Common Sense

There’s something really disturbing about the Post Office, a department of the Federal government, doing this to someone in the National Guard, another department of the Federal government.

You know, private organizations are forced to accommodate military service (and rightly so), you would think that would be a no-brainer for the rest of the Federal government.

Not to mention that many organizations would be honored to have such a distinguished employee.

CI Roller Dude

shit, one of the asshole police captains I worked for told me I couldn’t deploy…because they’d have to fill my job to cover shits and I might not have a job when I returned.

He fucked with the wrong copper…and after he read the law, he actually said: “you didn’t understand what I said…..”

FatCircles0311

It’s astonishing how poorly our own government treats veterans let alone fricken war heroes. I bet he never collects considering their unwillingness to pay him after his first two court decisions.

#scumbaggovernmentstrikes again

Ex-PH2

CI, you said ‘they’d have to fill my job to cover shits’.

Well, whose shits needed to be covered?

FELL OFF CHAIR LAUGHING SO HARD I STARTLED BOTH CATS.

Green Thumb

Re-Enlist as a SGM?

Was never NG, but that seems odd.

Green Thumb

Plus NG rank is a little slower to achieve than AD.

Old Tanker

@14

My guess is he’s an SGM now but wasn’t in 2000…..

That just figures, doesn’t it? Damn government doesn’t have to follow it’s own laws. Fired because he was NG, if it was a private company they would have had their shit straightened out for them in a hurry…

Nik

I am not a fan of the USPS. Whenever possible, I use Fed-Ex or UPS or other alternatives.

They have a 75% failure rate to deliver packages to me on time.

USMCE8Ret

Damn. That means the price of stamps are about to go up.

Just Plain Jason

What is funny is that he was probably fired because he made the rest of the office look bad, but all they could really get him on was excessive deployment.