Smoke-Out Cleaners honored for supporting its National Guard and Reserve employees | News | veronapress.com

2022-09-24 04:41:43 By : Ms. Linda Wang

On Aug. 26, Smoke-Out Cleaners owner Mark Woppert and supervisor Ken Kotte received certificates of recognition from the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve for its dedication to active military employees.

On Aug. 26, Smoke-Out Cleaners owner Mark Woppert and supervisor Ken Kotte received certificates of recognition from the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve for its dedication to active military employees.

For members of the National Guard and Reserve – who can get called away for training or sent to temporary duty in countries such as Iraq – needing to leave their job for extended time frames can be hard on their employer.

To help businesses and companies maintain positive relationships with their employees who are active in the military, 50 years ago the Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR) was established by the United States Department of Defense. ESGR aims to foster a culture in which all employers support and value the employment and military service of members, and ESGR promotes supportive work environments for service members, according to its website.

And just as members of the military can be honored for their service, employers supportive of the readiness of the nation's Guard and Reserve units have also been honored, with ESGR's Patriot Award.

The Patriot Award honors job supervisors for their support of their Guard and Reserve employees, and the nominations must come from an employee who is a Guard or Reserve member or one of their family members.

On Friday, Aug. 26, two individuals from Smoke-Out Cleaners in Verona were honored – owner Mark Woppert and supervisor Ken Kotte, after being nominated by an employee that Kotte supervises.

They received certificates of recognition, letters from the national and state ESGR chairmen and lapel pins.

During the ceremony held at the Smoke-Out Cleaners office, Woppert also signed a statement of continued support for his current and future Guard and Reserve employees.

Smoke-Out Cleaners, located at 535 Half Mile Road, specializes in disaster restoration, and cleaning of clothing, bedding, linen and apparel.

A guardsman can nominate an employer for the Patriot Award if they feel their employer has been particularly helpful in supporting their training or deployment, Wynne Williams, who is a committee chair for Wisconsin ESGR, told the Press.

“Guard and Reserve soldiers, service members, and airmen get deployed, but it is a burden on employers to let them go for that kind of thing, ” Williams said.

Part of ESGR's role is to inform employers and employees of their rights and responsibilities under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), he said. The federal act protects servicemembers' and veterans' civilian employment rights.

The act has a “bunch of ins and outs,” Williams said, but at its core the intention is that when members of the Guard or Reserve are sent to training or are deployed – they have to be rehired when they get back, in the same position or in an equivalent role. Also, when enlisted individuals apply for a job, being a member of the Guard or Reserve cannot be a factor in not getting the job.

ESGR came about following the move to an all-volunteer military force, when it was decided that Guard and Reserve members would have to rotate with regular forces to maintain an all-volunteer force, Williams said. So the Department of Defense realized it had to set up a system that let people have other lives outside of service.

ESGR has an ombudsman who provides mediation if there are USERRA disputes between employees and employers, but that is uncommon, Williams said.

There are other awards that ESGR hands out when civilian soldiers nominate their employers, such as The Freedom Award, which is given to employers who go above and beyond the requirements of USERRA, such as mowing an employee’s lawn for them or providing them with lunch, he said.

The types of employers that have been awarded recently in this region of Wisconsin vary from police departments and city water utility departments to landscaping companies and healthcare systems to Walmart and Dynacast.

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