Posting this here for fear of retaliation if someone finds this. The corporation my husband works for offered him interviews for different roles that, of he was hired, would have been a great promotion. Ultimately, they turned him down for both roles.
Today, he shared with me that he received feedback for why he was turned down for one of the two jobs. He came into the room shaking saying that the person actually shared, verbally that it was due to his reserves affiliation.
This happened one other time at a job he interviewed for in Wisconsin at a big box electronics store. I was finishing my master's degree at the time and urged him to file a complaint with USERRA, but ultimately he decided against it.
Does anyone have any advice for navigating this without threatening our well-being? I'm terrified we will be retaliated against somehow and I don't want us to lose our home (a rarity indeed that, ironically, happens to be gifted to us through the VA loan).
Context: If they fire him for whatever reason because it's “at-will” employment, we are screwed. I'm finishing up my PhD doing free work (2 full days of clinicals onsite for “experience” as a requirement of my degree) and only working part time right now at my former clinical site.
I don't even want to share the amount of student loan debt we carry.
TLDR; My husband's current company turned him down for a promotion because he is in the reserves. What do we do without risking it all and losing our primary income (I am a full time student)? If we file a complaint with USERRA, will they actually do something? Will he risk losing his affiliation with the reserves?