There's a soldier at work who, through no fault of his own, was not on the duty roster for the last two months. Because of this, one of his NCOs decided that he, and only he, has to take out the trash for the next month. There was no counseling involved, and it is not extra duty. I need a general public ruling. Duty entails working at most two hours more than normal about four days of the month.
2007-09-23T21:21:40Z
He also made it known that he was not on the duty roster.
2007-09-23T21:22:31Z
And he's the only white junior enlisted soldier we have on our shift.
2007-09-23T22:42:40Z
He informed his first line supervisor, who is the person who is punishing him.
Yes I do believe it is discrimination. My dad spent 24 years in the Navy and retired as a Navy Chief (E-7) and I dated a guy in the Navy for about a year and he used to love to complain about his duty weekends so, I know a bit about duty rosters. It seems weird to me that your comrade was left off of the duty roster to begin with. Not trying to be a conspiracy theorist or anything but it almost seems intentional, like he's being black-balled possibly. Has he had altercations with this NCO before. You noted that he had in fact notified his superiors about being left off the roster. Were these notifications in writing or were they just verbal? If they were verbal they will be harder to prove. That's why people should put everything in writing. I'm pretty sure that situations like this are mentioned in the Bluejacket Manual (or whatever manual your branch uses) but, the burden of proof is on your friend and if he cannot prove that he is being wrongfully treated or discriminated against, he doesn't have a chance. Also, making him take out the trash for a month isn't right but, it could be worse. I would advise him to wait on reporting this because trying to make an issue out of it would more than likely make things worse. If things continue then, he should see his NCO's superior and discuss his grievances. However, if things do come to this, he is going to need proof like witnesses, written proof, etc.
How would this be discrimination? First off you said he (or you) was not on the duty roster for 2 months. This "entails working at most two hours more than normal about for days of the month." Out of the past two months he let that pass to somebody else that had to pick up for his lack of honor and integrity. "There was no counseling involved, and it is not extra duty." so what are you complaining about? You said, "He also made it known that he was not on the duty roster." But who did he tell? Was it his NCOIC, did he tell you, or is it you? You don't give enough information to base a conclusion.
Sounds to me like he let it slide and was either caught or afraid of being caught. He skated for 2 months without doing his fair share. I don't care what your/his color is that is irrelevant. He neglected his duty, by letting this go.
If there is a regular rotation for duty, and your never on it for 2 months, and you know that you should be on it, then you should have brought that info to your next in the chain of command, To not bring it forward is a fault.