Earlier this month, an employer learned the hard way that it could not rely on a contract provision to greenlight discrimination. For several years, a school district limited the annual earnings increases of teachers over age 45 to avoid a pension-contribution surcharge. Why? Because its collective bargaining agreement with the…
The U.S. Army employed a “septuagenarian civilian doctor.” Well, at least it used to. The Army ended his employment as Chief of Surgery and replaced him with a military officer half his age. So, he sued the Army for age discrimination. As part of discovery, the record confirmed that the…
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission doesn’t think so. Last week, the EEOC announced that it had sued a company called “Meathead Movers,” the largest independent moving company in California, for allegedly refusing to hire people based on age. Here’s more from the press release: The EEOC’s lawsuit charges that…
I was going to title this one: “Sorry, I’m pretty sure that’s not how diversity, equity, and inclusion works.” It’ll make sense in a second. Back in 2017, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission caught wind that a senior vice president for human resources and diversity for a major pharmaceutical…
On Wednesday, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Representative Nancy Mace (R-SC) announced the introduction of the bipartisan Protecting Older Americans Act. The legislation would invalidate forced arbitration clauses that require employees to arbitrate claims…
A schoolteacher who got promoted to Assistant Head of School, only to have her position eliminated, felt that the school should have explored other alternatives. She believed this demonstrated a pretext for age discrimination. She was wrong. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) prohibits private employers from firing an…
A 30-plus-year employee found out the hard way that missing a deadline — by just 24 hours — to arbitrate her claim against her former employer under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act is enough to lose it forever when her brief delay violates the plain terms of an arbitration…
Is it age bias? Or just business? In a decision I read last night, the plaintiff spent more than two decades working as a system technician for the defendant. According to the defendant, it made a business decision to terminate all employees holding the plaintiff’s position because of COVID-19 and…
There will come a time in your HR or employment law career when you must respond to a Charge of Discrimination filed with the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission by filing a position statement. The EEOC has a great resource on effective position statements and stresses that the position…
Reductions in force are bad enough. Don’t let decisionmakers mishandle them and create litigation risks. The plaintiff in this case had worked for his current employer and its three predecessors for over 27 years in tech-related positions. He was 58 years old. In 2017, the plaintiff began reporting to a…