Transcript
00:01
a melbourne firefighter claims he was passed over for a promotion because of his military service now as news 13’s greg palone reports that man is taking his fight all the way to the u.s supreme court dominique landoffy has worked with the melbourne fire department since 1987. he
00:18
was promoted to lieutenant in 1999. during that same tenure he has also worked in the air force fire reserves as a chief master sergeant holding the title of fire chief he’s called away for duty often sometimes for months at a time it takes away from the firefighting
00:34
job it takes me away from my you know from the family and you know just as any other reservist serving our country he was gone for a full year back in 2001 and a six-month stint in 2003 when the iraqi war heated up he says since that time he’s been called to active duty dozens of times
00:50
supporting bases across the country mostly 30 to 45 day stints meantime on his local firefighting job he’s had aspirations i’ve attempted to promote to the next rank of what we call battalion chief buddy says he was passed over for promotion four times from 2005 to 2010 despite
01:10
receiving awards commendations and earning employee of the quarter for battalion chief type duties he was being told that the reason that he was not being promoted is because he didn’t have enough face time and he didn’t have any absences at that point in time except
01:25
for his military duties they claim discrimination he’s being punished for his military job by law they say an employer must respect that commitment it’s not enough that they’re inconvenienced they have to accommodate appeals at the state and regional level haven’t worked landofi is now hoping his
01:42
complaint will be heard by the nation’s highest court we asked melbourne fire chief paul forsberg for comment he told us we try to hire the best fit for the department he went on to say we will let the legal process play out i do realize if this is occurring to me
01:58
there’s other many other people that are in similar circumstances in melbourne gregg palone news 13. landofi’s attorney says there’s a slim chance their case will go before the supreme court he says the court only hears on average 88 cases a year
