The Washington Post Magazine recently ran an interesting story about the prevalence of ageism in the workplace. As the baby boomer generation ages, the problem of age discrimination is going to be more and more common. Unfortunately, age discrimination remains one of the more socially acceptable forms of discrimination in…
In Maine, like many other states, there is a growing concern about a “brain drain” caused by retiring state employees. Roughly a quarter of IT workers working for Maine state government will be eligible for retirement in the next two years. According to Jim Smith, Maine’s Chief Information Officer, “about…
A recent study published by the National Bureau for Economic Research finds that employers discriminate against older women at higher rates than older men. The researchers sent out about 40,000 fake resumes to employers and tracked how the employers responded to the resumes. They found that women aged 64-66 got…
This week a federal court in Massachusetts ruled against Areva, Inc. in an age discrimination case. The court held that a reasonable jury could determine that Areva laid off Farrokh Seifaee because of his age. Seifaee was 61 years old at the time of his termination in October 2013. Seifaee…
It has been reported that the Maine Human Rights Commission will hear a case today against Lowe’s Home Improvement. Robert Hack of Greene filed the case against Lowe’s because he believed the company refused to hire him because of his age. Mr. Hack unsuccessfully applied for jobs at Lowe’s stores…
Fortune Magazine recently ran an article that explored a trend in the tech industry of job postings that say the companies prefer applicants who are “digital natives.” Education consultant Marc Prensky coined the term “digital native” in an article that he published in 2001 called Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. What…
Earlier this month, a 64-year-old tech worker, Robert Heath, filed an age discrimination lawsuit against Google. In the lawsuit, filed in California, Heath claims that Google refused to hire him because of his age. The attorneys who filed the lawsuit seek to represent a class of older workers as well.…
This week the Maine Human Rights Commission (MHRC), in Augusta, unanimously found reasonable grounds to believe that Tambrands discriminated against an East Dixfield man, Allen Ackley, when it asked him questions during its hiring process that required him to reveal his age. Mr. Ackley reportedly applied for a plant technician…
A federal court in Puerto Rico, incredibly, held that no reasonable person could find that this statement showed that the employer fired her employee because of his age. As such, the Puerto Rico court, using a procedure called “summary judgment,” dismissed the case without letting a jury decide whether age…
Last month, the U.S. District Court in New Hampshire ruled that a reasonable jury could determine that Northeast Utilities Service Company (NUSCO) discriminated against former employee Judith Janusz because of her age. In particular, the court found that a reasonable jury could conclude that NUSCO subjected Janusz to an unlawful…