Company Fired Human Resources Director Because of Her Age in Plan to Replace Older Workers With Younger Workers, Federal Agency Charges
ATLANTA – Fischer Connectors, Inc., a Swiss-based national manufacturer of circular connectors used in medical devices, will pay $460,000 to settle an age discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.
The EEOC’s suit charged that in early 2019, under the direction of its new president and chief executive officer, Fischer Connectors made plans to systematically eliminate all older management and sales employees and replace them with a new, younger workforce. The human resources director witnessed the chief executive officer making dozens of discriminatory, age-related comments about current and potential employees. The human resources director then witnessed Fischer Connectors repeatedly turning down qualified older employees in favor of less-qualified younger employees, and forcing older upper-management employees out of the company under the guise of “job eliminations.” When the human resources director questioned these actions and attempted to educate Swiss executives about anti-discrimination laws in the United States, she was fired and replaced by two significantly younger individuals.
Such alleged conduct violates the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) which prohibits discrimination against applicants and employees aged 40 and above on the basis of age. The EEOC filed suit (Civil Action No. 1:22-CV-03884-SCJ-CCB) in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, after first trying to reach a pre-litigation settlement via its conciliation process.
Under the consent decree resolving the lawsuit, Fischer Connectors will pay $460,000 in monetary damages to the former employee, train all of its U.S. employees and managers on the ADEA, distribute its ADEA policies to all employees, post a notice about federal anti-discrimination laws and employee rights in the workplace, and allow the EEOC to monitor how it handles future ADEA discrimination complaints.
“This was a textbook example of age discrimination in violation of the ADEA,” said Marcus G. Keegan, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Atlanta District Office. “The ADEA makes it clear that employment decisions must be made based on employee qualifications rather than on stereotypes about an employee based on their age. The EEOC is pleased that the employee will be compensated and that Fischer Connectors agreed to take steps to train its executives, managers, and employees on its obligations under the ADEA in an effort to prevent this from happening in the future.”
Darrell Graham, district director of the Atlanta District Office, said, “Bias and unfounded assumptions about the competence and ability of older workers continue to drive age discrimination in the workplace. The EEOC remains committed to enforcing the laws that protect individuals 40 years of age and older from unlawful discrimination.”
For more information on age discrimination, please visit https://www.eeoc.gov/age-discrimination.
The EEOC advances opportunity in the workplace by enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. More information is available at www.eeoc.gov.
