You work hard your entire life. You raise your family, you are trying to pay for the astronomical cost of college for your children while planning for retirement. You have done everything you were supposed to do. You have aged into your job and what you lack in energy, you make up for in institutional knowledge and the wisdom that can only be acquired with age. What do you get for this? You are called into your supervisor’s office one day and told that the company is downsizing and that they are offering you severance pay of two months. To get the severance, you have to resign and sign an agreement that you will not sue your company in court or band together with other employees to bring a class action. You feel as if you have no choice, so you sign and take the two months pay. What are you going to tell your spouse? How do you explain this to your kids in college? How will you find a job once you are over the age of 50?
This is a heartbreaking tale, but one that is happening every day across the country. Older workers are being forced out to make way for younger, more tech savy, cheaper employees.
ProPublica and Mother Jones published a story about massive age discrimination at IBM. See https://features.propublica.org/ibm/ibm-age-discrimination-american-workers/. ProPublica exposed that IBM was:
- Denying older workers information required by law that would allow them to assess whether they were being discriminated against;
- Firing and laying off older workers, even if they were high performers;
- Encouraging older workers to apply for other positions in IBM, then making sure they did not get those positions;
- Failing to train older workers to set them up for failure;
- Firing older workers and rehiring them as “contract workers.”
If ProPublica’s investigation is accurate, IBM’s actions are disgraceful.
The worst part about age discrimination is that it results in older workers losing jobs while simultaneously preventing them from getting new jobs. In what should be the twilight of your life, you are struggling to pay bills and stay in your home or apartment. This is unfair and illegal.
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), 29 U.S.C. §§621-633 makes it unlawful for an employer to refuse to hire; to discharge; or to discriminate against any individual with respect to compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of the individual’s age. State and local law also prohibits age discrimination. A federal jury in Camden, New Jersey recently awarded a plaintiff $51 million verdict because of age discrimination.
If you suspect that your employer is discriminating against you because of your age, contact Klaproth Law for a free, confidential consultation. Do not wait until you are terminated to contact a lawyer.
Klaproth Law handles most employment discrimination cases on a contingency fee basis, which means we don’t get paid, unless you recover.
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This article is solely for educational and informational purposes and should not be construed as legal advice, nor should it be construed as a substitute for advice of counsel. The article is also written as a broad overview of the law and is not an exhaustive examination of any of the topics addressed. Klaproth Law PLLC recommends that all readers seek specific advice from Klaproth Law PLLC about their particular legal issues.
