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Settlement Returns Reservist To Job In Clerk's Office

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By MIKE SALINERO

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 22, 2008

TAMPA - An Army reservist will be reinstated in her former job and paid $2,500 under a lawsuit settlement reached Thursday between the U.S. Department of Justice and Hillsborough County Circuit Court Clerk Pat Frank's office.

Tracey Marshall, a sergeant in the reserves, will again be a manager of the court clerk area of the criminal division, a position she held before going on active duty in August 2005. Marshall said that when she returned that October, she was assigned to the traffic department at a lower rate of pay.

Last year, the Justice Department filed suit on Marshall's behalf under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994.

The act requires employers to re-employ returning reservists with the same "seniority and other rights and benefits determined by seniority that the person had on the date of commencement of service in the uniformed services."

Frank's attorney said after the suit was filed that Frank has the right to rotate employees in the clerk's office to where they were needed. He said Marshall had been given different assignments before she left for active duty and that her pay upon returning was the same as before she left.

Frank issued a statement Thursday saying she was glad the suit had been resolved in a "fair and equitable way" for Marshall and the clerk's office. Frank said the settlement is "not an admission by either of the parties of any violation of USERRA or any other law, rule or regulation."

"We look forward to Tracey Marshall's continued service to the clerk's office," Frank said in the statement.

Reporter Mike Salinero can be reached at (813) 259-8303 or msalinero@tampatrib.com.

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