Dive Brief:
- Seqirus, an influenza vaccine producer, cannot escape the age bias claim of a job applicant, a Massachusetts federal trial court ruled. Paul Skowronski had "plausibly alleged that the defendant hired a younger person with equal or lesser qualifications to fill the position from which plaintiff was rejected," it said (Skowronski v. Seqirus, Inc., No. 19-cv-11893 (D. Mass. June 18, 2020)).
- Skowronski sued the company for age discrimination under state and federal law claiming that it refused to hire him in 2016 for a position as a senior financial analyst because of his age. He claimed that the company hired a 33-year-old for the job.
- Seqirus asked the court to dismiss the claim but it declined, noting that Skowronski had "plausibly" alleged age discrimination by showing that he was over 40 years old when he applied for the job, he was qualified for the position, his application was rejected and the company hired someone outside of the protected class.
Dive Insight:
The federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) forbids discrimination on the basis of age against employees and applicants who are 40 years old or older. But even with prohibitions against age discrimination found in federal and state laws, an AARP investigation earlier this year found that ageism at work is widespread.
Several employers this year settled claims of age bias in hiring. Haynes International Inc. agreed to pay $180,000 to end an investigation by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission into its hiring practices for job candidates more than 40 years old. Norfolk Southern Corp. likewise agreed to pay $350,000 to settle an EEOC age discrimination lawsuit alleging the freight transportation company refused to hire qualified individuals over the age of 51 for railway security positions.
PwC agreed to pay $11.6 million and change its recruiting practices to settle a claim that its targeting of recent college grads amounted to age discrimination. A group of applicants age 40 and older sued in 2016, alleging that the company discriminated against older applicants by focusing certain recruiting efforts on college campuses and school-affiliated job sites, in violation of the ADEA.
HR can help employers avoid such allegations and support diversity initiatives by developing and implementing policies that forbid and prevent age discrimination. Experts say there are steps that employers can take to avoid ageism in hiring. For example, phrases like "digital native" should not be used in job listings and advertisements for job openings should not be limited to college campuses and social media, sources previously told HR Dive.
In addition to an awareness of how job ad placement and language can lead to age bias, HR can provide managers and front-line supervisors with compliance training on local, state and federal laws aimed at preventing bias, harassment and retaliation, as experts say managers are a leading cause of such claims.
