Iraq veteran suing company
S.D. Guard member says firm violated federal law by not giving old job back
From staff and wire reports
A National Guard soldier recently home from Iraq is suing Sykes Enterprises, saying the company's Bismarck, N.D., branch violated a federal law that guarantees returning soldiers will get their jobs back.
Prior to his deployment, Pfc. Ron Vander Wal, 23, a member of the South Dakota Guard's 200th Engineer Company, worked as a telephone customer service technician with Sykes, a company that provides computer tech support for consumers. He is originally from Pollock, but now resides in Bismarck.
"It was a good homecoming but this has been rather disappointing," Vander Wal said about his problems with Sykes. "I'm the only member of the unit as far as I know who didn't have a job to come back to. It was pretty disappointing to have to start job hunting again."
The 200th Engineer Company, based in Mobridge, Pierre, Chamberlain and Lemmon, was deployed to Iraq in January 2003 and returned to South Dakota in late March of this year. Vander Wal spent his time in Iraq helping to build a bridge, providing security at that span and guarding the 200th's base camp and prisoners of war. He's been with the South Dakota Guard for five years and is a member of the 200th's Mobridge detachment.
Vander Wal said that after he returned from Iraq, a personnel officer at Sykes' Bismarck branch told him no positions were available for him, and that other returning veterans were ''in the same boat.''
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