2018 - Wakefield Firefighters Local 1478 and Military Veteran vs. Town of Wakefield

Attorney Barrault won significant financial benefits for a deployed military veteran in 2018 after he was unfairly targeted by the Town. Usually, Union contracts provide that employees earn paid leave benefits, such as personal, sick, and vacation leave, throughout the year. Employees generally continue to earn these benefits even if they are on some form of excused leave, such as injury or military, for all or part of the year, unless the contract or past practice specifies otherwise. Nonetheless, the Town Wakefield effectively punished a firefighter for being deployed to Iraq by cutting his paid leave earned while serving his country. The Arbitrator found that the Wakefield firefighter continued to be an employee of the Town during his deployment and he therefore was entitled to earn full amount of personal, sick, and vacation leave under the contract.