NATIONAL GUARD Department of Justice files discrimination suit

The suit says the guardsman was fired after a two-week military obligation.
TRANSFER, Pa. -- The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against a paperboard manufacturing company, charging illegal dismissal of an Army National Guardsman.
The suit was filed Thursday in federal court in Pittsburgh against Newark Paperboard Products, alleging discrimination against Michael E. McLaughlin, who had served as manager of the company's Mercer Division plant on Arlington Drive.
McLaughlin is a major in the National Guard. The lawsuit accuses Newark of discriminating against him on the basis of his military status, a violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994.
Military duties
The law is designed to minimize the disadvantages to an employee when the worker must be absent from his or her civilian employment in order to perform military duties, said Mary Beth Buchanan, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania.
McLaughlin has been an officer in the National Guard since 1980 and moved his family to Mercer County and became the full-time plant manager at Newark's local plant in 1998, the lawsuit says.
It notes that he was never reprimanded or disciplined during his tenure with Newark, but, in August 2001, immediately after his return from a two-week military obligation, Newark fired him without warning, the suit said.
Buchanan said the suit, filed in McLaughlin's behalf, alleges that McLaughlin's status as a National Guardsman was a motivating factor in the decision to fire him.
The suit asks that he be reinstated as plant manager at the level of seniority, status and pay he would have enjoyed had he not been terminated.
Conditions
Buchanan said it asks that he be compensated for his lost wages. It also seeks to require Newark to pay him liquidated damages in an amount equal to the amount of his lost wages and benefits as a result of Newark's willful failure to comply with the provisions of the Uniformed Services Act.
Finally, the suit asks for an injunction to prevent Newark from taking any action against McLaughlin in the future that would violate that law.
Calls to Newark's corporate offices and to McLaughlin seeking comment on the case weren't immediately returned.
Buchanan said federal law prohibits any employer from discriminating against any employee with regard to hiring, retention or promotion or any benefit of employment, because of the employee's past, present or future membership in a uniformed service such as the National Guard.
Newark Paperboard, a division of the Newark Group of companies, is a supplier of tubes and cores for paper, film, fabric and tape manufacturers and has facilities throughout the United States and Canada.