Tag: Baton Rouge, Louisiana

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) - Justin DeWitt, the party-endorsed Democrat who ran against U.S. Representative Garret Graves this election season, says his employer fired him before he could return to work after Election Day. DeWitt says his supervisor at the SJB Group told him he would be laid off because the company was “downsizing" and because he had “performed poorly” in the last year. “I’ve thought about it from every angle, trying to see it from other perspectives,” DeWitt said Monday. “All the angles I can come up with, either it’s politically motivated or they’re completely horrible and clumsy with the way they do their business.” DeWitt worked as a surveyor’s supervisor for the SJB Group, which has managed construction projects across the state since the 1950s. Since he was laid off, the company has posted a job opening for a different position on its LinkedIn page. “If this is politically motivated, that’s cowardly and exactly why I wanted to run for office, to stop things like that," he said. That was kind of odd,” DeWitt said. “A lot more verbal criticism for simple things that other coworkers are doing as well. I just felt more targeted.” Louisiana is an at-will work state, which means employers do not need a reason to fire their employees. DeWitt’s legal options are limited.