If you’re 67 years old, you work in human resources, and you happen to hear those words from the company’s U.S. president, it may be time to dust off the old resume. Or contact the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The HR Manager for a Swiss-based national manufacturer did the latter.…
Articles Posted in Age
The lawyers, man, sometimes they screw everything up.
That’s the vibe I got from reading this recent Fifth Circuit decision affirming the lower court’s dismissal of age discrimination claims. The plaintiff was one of five Zone Human Resources Directors (ZHRDs) for the defendant. Each ZHRD had its own zone. In 2018, the defendant decided that each ZHRD would…
If hiring managers say they are looking for “new blood,” are they guilty of age discrimination?
An HR employee claimed that her age motivated her employer’s decision not to select her for a Human Resources Talent Consultant (HRTC) position after the company restructured the HR Department. Why? Because decision-makers allegedly said on a conference call that they were looking for “fresh new blood” to fill the…
How long do your employees have to sue you for discrimination?
Perhaps you’ve gotten here because you’ve Googled ‘How long do I have to sue my employer for discrimination?” Either way, let’s discuss. I read this federal court decision last night, the inspiration for this post. It’s an action for age discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and…
This HR service provider “walked the walk” and defeated claims of age discrimination
Some of the tenets of good HR compliance include documenting and communicating performance issues and taking additional formal steps to alleviate them. If those steps fail, the employer can proceed with termination, being sure to document the reasons supporting the final decision. A 65-year-old client manager sued his employer, an…
A “relentless and ruthless” campaign of 1,000 age-based insults might force an older employee to resign
“This case is close,” reasoned a federal appellate court. Unlike the district court before it, which granted summary judgment in favor of the employer-defendant on the Age Discrimination in Employment Act claims of the employee-plaintiff, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that a jury could return an age discrimination…
Hey, management-side employment lawyers! Bookmark this post now and thank me later.
We’ve all been there as defense attorneys. You find yourself defending claims of disparate treatment under a federal anti-discrimination statute like the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) where your client hired someone younger than the plaintiff. The only logical explanation, according to the plaintiff, is age discrimination. Why? Because…
If your hiring software does this, the EEOC says its age discrimination
In this Friday post, I shared some technical guidance from the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice to help employers navigate the Americans with Disabilities Act when using software, algorithms, and artificial intelligence to assess job applicants and employees. But employers using hiring software can discriminate in other…
New Zamboni turns in Old Zamboni driver for peeing in a drain. Old Zamboni driver gets fired and sues for discrimination.
I can’t make this stuff up. The former Zamboni driver for a professional hockey team claims that the team unlawfully fired him based on his age (68) and disability (benign prostatic hypertrophy, which causes a frequent and uncontrollable need to urinate). Unfortunately for the plaintiff, a rather startling admission may…
Don’t ruin your arbitration agreements by doing this…
Some of you require your employees to sign agreements requiring them to arbitrate employment claims — other than claims of sexual harassment or abuse, of course. But what happens if your employees later sign another agreement — a severance agreement, for example — that doesn’t contain an arbitration provision? One…