Age Harassment Lawsuit

In a July 1, 2009 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (”EEOC”) Press Release, the federal agency announced that EEOC attorneys filed an age harassment and retaliation lawsuit in Hawaii alleging that a retail store violated federal law by subjecting a 73-year-old female pharmacist to age harassment, retaliation and forcing her out of her job.  See, http://www.eeoc.gov/press/7-1-09.html .  As stated in the EEOC Press Release, the lawsuit charges that the pharmacy manager of a company store in Honolulu subjected the woman to age-based insults, such as telling her she was “too old to work,” that she “should retire,” should “retire from pharmacy work now,” and other discriminatory conduct.  According to the EEOC, the company received notice of the harassment but the company failed to take appropriate action to investigate and correct the hostile work environment, as the law requires.  Instead, the EEOC asserts, the company subjected the woman to a hostile work environment by berating her for lack of competence, making discriminatory comments in performance evaluations, telling her again to retire, and wrongfully accusing her of regulatory violations.  Finally, the pharmacist was forced to resign to escape the discriminatory conduct.  Age discrimination and retaliation for complaining about it violate the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the EEOC filed suit after first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement.  An EEOC attorney quoted in the Press Release said “The EEOC is committed to preventing age harassment against workers.”  Further information about the EEOC is available on the agency’s website at www.eeoc.gov . 

Whether employment related age harassment and retaliation for complaining about it occurs in Cuero, Gonzales, Yoakum or elsewhere, victims of workplace age bias may contact the EEOC and an attorney or lawyer to determine if an age discrimination lawsuit is ultimately appropriate under the particular facts and circumstances of the potential age harassment claim.