EmploymentDigest.net

Age bias charges difficult to prove, but awareness key

Posted on 12. Jul, 2005 by Bill in Employment News

Age bias charges difficult to prove, but awareness key

Q: I am in my 50s with more than 20 years of experience with the same company. I was laid off over a year ago with approximately 20 other employees. On two occasions before
I left, my boss commented that I must be ready to retire (I was not). I often felt that it was my age and salary that caused me to be laid off, since I found myself more competent and reliable than some of my co-workers who were not let go. With the recent Supreme Court ruling on age discrimination, do you feel that any of my rights were violated? Also, is there a time frame within which one must act?

A: Let me answer your second question first: To file an age discrimination claim under either state or federal law, you must file the claim with either the Massachusetts
Commission against Discrimination or the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission within 300 days of the action that you consider discriminatory. As you indicate that you were laid off over a year ago, the statute of limitations does apply, and you are prohibited from filing a claim.

Now to tackle your first question: The Supreme Court ruling insures that disparate impact analysis is available under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, in the same way that Title VII protects individuals from discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. According to Marc Greenbaum, a law professor at Suffolk University, “disparate impact arises when a practice that is applicable to all disqualifies members of a protected class more frequently than it does those who are not within that class.” Your termination might have been viewed as discriminatory if a disproportionately large number of the employees who were laid off were older workers.

Even then the employer could claim that, according to Greenbaum, “a reasonable factor other than age” - such as performance, productivity, or attendance - was the reason that you and the others were laid off.

Although the new Supreme Court ruling was hailed initially as a victory for workers age 40 and over, not much is likely to change. Charges of age discrimination remain extremely difficult to prove.

There is no doubt that age discrimination exists in the workplace, and that you will encounter it from some prospective employers. While you can’t easily prove age discrimination, you need to be aware of it and find ways to circumvent potential pitfalls.

The way for you to make an end run around the possibility of age discrimination is to focus your resume on only your last 10-15 years of employment; look and sound as youthful, healthy and vigorous as possible, on the phone and in person; emphasize your ability to get along well with a wide variety of people, including individuals in different generations; and concentrate on the ways in which your experience, perspective, and wisdom are assets rather than liabilities.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Tags: Employment News