THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 13, 1994 TAG: 9411130057
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: AHOSKIE LENGTH: Medium: 96 lines
Among the items decorating B.J. and Deborah Parker's brick ranch home is a framed cross-stitched picture atop a television which says, ``Love's Everywhere. Look Around.''
On a nearby wall, amid a collage of family pictures lining the paneled walls of the spacious den, is a portrait of the couple taken five years ago at their wedding.
But Bobby Jason Parker contends their love helped cost him his job as postmaster of Ahoskie.
Just days after the wedding, Parker says, he was fired.
In a $5 million employment-discrimination lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Raleigh, Parker, 47, is contesting his dismissal.
In his suit, he says, critical statements from white postal workers ``contained adverse references to my plans to marry what they believed to be a Caucasian woman. I am black. My fiancee is black, but very fair-skinned.
``It's devastating, very devastating,'' he said. ``I feel the most for my wife because nobody has the right to try to interfere with someone's marital plans.''
Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Hamilton represents the defendant, U.S. Postmaster General Marvin Runyon. Hamilton said Thursday he will file a response to Parker's lawsuit by the end of this month.
He declined to discuss the case.
In his lawsuit, Parker says official reasons for his firing were failing to submit employee accident reports and worker's compensation claims, filing false or improperly reported time cards and providing false information on mail volume.
But Parker, who holds a master's degree in human resource management from Central Michigan University, denies the charges and says he was out of town on business when some of the infractions are alleged to have occurred.
Parker's lawsuit claims there were other motives behind his dismissal.
``What I've found in this area since I've been here is that people have a hard time with other peoples' success,'' he said, at his home in a neighborhood lined with one-story ranch houses and well-established trees.
The Wilson County native began his postal career as a mail carrier in 1969 after serving four years in the Army. Several years later, Parker moved up to management and eventually accepted an assignment to run the Ahoskie post office in 1982.
Parker admits that his by-the-book managerial style may have upset some employees.
``I don't think there's any room in the work force for an employee to determine how a manager should manage an office,'' he said.
During his 7-1/2-year tenure, Parker said, he received 32 letters of appreciation and saw his $27,000 salary rise to $50,000. ``Now, that tells you I was doing something right.''
But others claim Parker also was doing some things wrong, the lawsuit says.
Parker was blamed when a worker's compensation claim was not filed after an employee cut his forehead, the lawsuit says. He was also held responsible when an accident report was not promptly prepared for a letter carrier who received hospital treatment for a dog bite, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit says postal officials also accused Parker of altering an employee's time card and improperly changing mail volume counts, which Parker denies.
``A number of employees - the same employees who provided adverse statement (sic) forming the basis for my removal - warned me not to marry,'' the lawsuit says.
``One Postal Inspector concluded his interview with me by indicating that if I married my fiancee that I would be removed,'' reads another statement.
Parker would not go into details about comments made by these employees.
``I don't know why they said what they said. I'm beyond that. But believe me, it happened.''
Days after exchanging vows with his wife, manager of a physician's office, and with an interview already lined up at a Michigan post office, Parker was told he was being fired. Thirty days later, he was removed from the rolls, he said.
Parker went to the Michigan interview but believes he lost the job because he was no longer considered a postal service employee.
After leaving the U.S. Postal Service, he opened an Ahoskie seafood restaurant in 1990. He closed it shortly afterward when he was called to the Persian Gulf war with the U.S. Army Reserves. He said he was discharged from duty in February 1992 because of back, hip and leg injuries he'd suffered since the 1970s.
He now teaches part time at Shaw University. He also dedicates a lot of hours to his legal case.
He's asking for $2.5 million in compensation for back pay with interest, lost benefits, denial of promotion and various forms of discrimination. Another $2.5 million is being sought in punitive damages.
He said he was denied due process because postal officials refused to investigate claims made in his defense and failed to provide him with a dismissal package.
Although he said he previously employed a few lawyers in his fight to stake his claim against the postal service, Parker now is representing himself until he finds an attorney. by CNB