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New Law Allows Hire Preference for Vets
Military veterans could get a leg up on those competing against them for the same job under a bill Washington State Gov . Chris Gregoire signed into law Wednesday
By Queenie Wong
Military veterans could get an advantage over those competing against them for the same job under a bill Gov. Chris Gregoire signed into law Wednesday.
The legislation, House Bill 1432, allows private employers to voluntarily give a preference to hiring veterans and widows or widowers of veterans without violating federal and state anti-discrimination statutes. Private companies also could give employment preference to spouses of certain honorably discharged veterans who became permanently disabled during their service.
Gov. Chris Gregoire
Currently, public employers already give a preference to veterans. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives with a 94-4 vote and was unanimously approved by the Senate earlier this month. “We wanted to make sure we had a way to honor our women and men in uniform upon returning from overseas and this really is a pathway for their reintegration back into society through employment,” said Rep. Jay Rodne, R-North Bend, the bill’s lead sponsor.
Rodne, a Marine Corps veteran, said he introduced the bill after a Seattle attorney and a nonprofit aimed at expanding employment opportunities for military veterans approached him about the issue. Washington law prohibits an employer from discriminating against job applicants due military status.
The U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 also bars an employer from discriminating against any individual based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. The act prevents employers from giving preference to military veterans because often they are predominantly male, said David Black, the attorney from Jackson Lewis, who approached Rodne about the new law. Black noted, though, that a subsection in the civil-rights act allows state and local governments to pass laws creating preference for veterans without violating the federal law.
Marjorie James, the president of Hire America’s Heroes, said that veterans are at a disadvantage when they apply for a job in the private sector because they often don’t have as much experience in certain industries as some other applicants.
- Proposed Law (PDF)
- HireVeterans.com
The group, based in Redmond, works with corporations to help transitioning military-service members, veterans and their family members find corporate jobs.
Queenie Wong: 360-236-8267 or qwong@seattletimes.com
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=102268
Posted by Veterans Today on May 12 2011, With 0 Reads, Filed under Economy, Jobs & Careers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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The USA is an increasingly Orwellian, authoritarian, and Machiavellian nation, society, and culture. Veterans represent the antithesis of the aforementioned with the result that they have and will continue to face both overt and covert forms of employment, educational, and other forms of discrimination despite those specious sophistries and terminological inexactitudes meant to mollify critics of the same.
For example, Federal Veterans Preference laws, supposedly meant to grant veterans employment preference in the Federal Government lack those appropriate “enforcement mechanisms” and sanctions requisite for effective promulgation. In effect these laws mandate that a US Veteran identify himself as such when applying for employment at the government level and, often, in private industry. The same not only results in the veteran not being given veterans preference but, in fact, being discriminated against in employment by entities, both public and private, who, given the laws and customs of the USA, see the veteran, especially the Caucasian male veteran, as an individual who is “politically incorrect” and subject to discrimination without recourse. Veterans know that the aforementioned is true. It is common knowledge amongst veterans. Those individuals who are unwilling and/or unable to serve in the US military, especially the combat arms; however, receive preference by law and custom.
With the dramatic break down of the “social contract” that the aforementioned implies, the USA will devolve into civil war, break up, invasion, and/or obliteration as many other nations both ancient and modern have suffered under similar circumstances.
“To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow; a poor player,
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.” Partial quote from William Shakespeare’s play,
Macbeth. Act V, Scene V
Yeah, long time ago got hired by the Army. Offers made became offers rescinded and I ended up deciding that this isn’t the place for me. So I sent out, oh about 65 applications for other jobs in the Army (I’m good at multi- tasking, had four different ratings) and ended up that nothing happened. So I asked ‘the big cheese’s secretary in TACOM about all these jobs and every one of them in their own words “did NOT have Veterans Preference for hiring”. Asked the Veterans employment guy for the state and I was told by him “they will hire whoever they want”. Wouldn’t have been so funny except that two years later after I retired, talked to a veterans employment guy and he said he could get me on as a GS-14, BECAUSE my resume reflected Veterans experience.
And then there are those Vietnam times Vets who got less than Honoravle discharges even though they felt they were serving their country well by refusing and resisting. They get to eat cake.