By Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK, Oct 29 (Reuters) – The US filed a lawsuit on Thursday accusing Google of failing to give an employee his old job back or put him in a similar job following one year of military leave as a US Army reservist.
The case is a rare instance of the US government suing a private employer for violating the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA), which protects the civilian employment of military personnel called to active duty.
According to a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, Mark Davisson had spent 2-1/2 years as a Google key account executive, where he handled cloud services accounts for asset manager BlackRock and hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, and managed the US business of the former Credit Suisse.
EMPLOYEE FIRED AFTER FURTHER MILITARY LEAVE
Upon Davisson’s return from leave in May 2023, Google – a unit of Mountain View, California-based Alphabet – allegedly refused to let Davisson handle any customer accounts, depriving him of career advancement though he kept his pay and title.
The complaint said Google assigned Davisson in January 2024 to a cloud solutions position that also involved no management of customer accounts, and fired him seven months later following another military leave and as part of a broader workforce reduction.
Davisson has a home in Charlotte, North Carolina, but lived and worked in Manhattan while Google employed him.
Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
LOST WAGES AND BENEFITS
The lawsuit was brought by the civil rights unit of the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan, with backing from Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, the Trump administration’s top civil rights enforcer.
It seeks to recoup lost wages and benefits as well as additional damages for Davisson, and requires Google to ensure a nondiscriminatory workplace including by improving training regarding USERRA.
“Federal law ensures that our brave soldiers, who sacrifice so much to keep us safe, are not punished by employers when they return to the civilian workforce after completing their military service,” US Attorney Jamie McDonald in Manhattan said in a statement.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and David Holmes)
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