Last night, I read a NJ Appellate Division opinion about a plaintiff in his fifties who claimed his age motivated the defendant to end his employment. Spoiler alert: it didn’t. There were many reasons why the appellate court affirmed the trial court’s decision to grant summary judgment in favor of…
Trust me. The title of this post will make sense in about a minute or two. Last year, a small sports bar and restaurant sought summary judgment to dismiss the age discrimination claims one of its former employees had asserted against the company. The company’s position was that it ended…
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. One of your employees has been with the company for several years. Over that span, they reported to the same manager, who consistently provided positive feedback and good performance reviews. All is well. Then, the manager leaves. And there’s a new sheriff…
Some jobs stink. But that doesn’t make the office a “hostile work environment.” For example, last night, I read about a manager whose employer transferred her to a unit facing a backlog of 12,000 cases. Following the transfer, the manager claimed she endured “constant negative treatment,” was the only one…
On Monday, three House Republicans and three House Democrats reintroduced the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act (POWADA), billed as a bipartisan proposal to strengthen anti-discrimination protections for older workers. How does POWADA accomplish this? The Age Discrimination In Employment Act makes it unlawful for an employer “to fail or refuse to hire…
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…