Best Ohio Age Discrimination Attorney Answer: What can I do after I was passed up for a promotion in favor of a younger, less experienced employee? Do I have a wrongful termination claim if my boss fired me after complaining about age discrimination? What are my employment law rights in Ohio for age discrimination?
The federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act and Ohio employment laws (found at Revised Code § 4112.02(N), § 4112.05 and § 4112.14) make it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against an employee based on his or her age. This means refusing to hire or promote someone based age. These employment laws mean that you cannot fire someone because they are too old. These same employment laws prevent employers for retaliating against any employee that complains about age discrimination.
For example, a New York insurance sales company, PJP Health, Inc. was recently found to be discriminating and retaliating against older employees at the company. The egregious acts of age discrimination and retaliation cost PJP $300,000 to settle the age discrimination claim.
So what happened? According to the age discrimination lawsuit, Doreen Moore, who was 45 at the time, was blatantly discriminated against by her supervisor on the basis of her age. Moore’s supervisor shockingly told her, “You need more make-up because of your wrinkles.” Subsequently, Moore was passed up for a promotion in favor of a much younger and less experienced employee. Presumably, the younger employee also had less wrinkles. Moore then formally complained that she was being mistreated and denied a promotion because of her age. As is often the case, instead of investigating Moore’s serious allegations, PJP fired Moore in retaliation of her report of blatant age discrimination.
But that is not all. PJP created a pattern of age discrimination. Similarly, office manager James Massimino, 57, and assistant clerk Gregory Winfield, 61 were terminated by PJP and replaced with considerably younger employees. PJP’s discrimination and retaliation against Moore was just part of a pattern of unlawful age discrimination, as companies rarely just discriminate against an isolated older employee.
Any inappropriate comments about an employee’s age should immediately be brought to the attention of a company’s HR department or supervisor. If PJP would have investigated Moore’s allegations and made the necessary changes to ensure that Moore was treated fairly, the company would be $300,000 richer. Instead, they perpetuated the supervisor’s discriminatory attitude by denying a promotion that Moore deserved and then terminating her for simply asking to be treated fairly at work.
It is truly unfortunate that many employers do not understand that our older workers have experience that should be utilized instead of discriminated against.
If you are an employee over the age of 40 years old and believe that you are being discriminated because you are older than other employees; or have be wrongfully terminated or fired instead of someone younger or were replaced with some younger than you, you may have an age discrimination claim under Ohio law or the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). Even if you are not sure about your age discrimination claim, you should call the right attorney as quickly as possible to schedule a free and confidential consultation at 866-797-6040. Age discrimination claims have very short statute of limitations, which means that you only have a very short amount of time to figure out if you have an age discrimination claim and take action. It is unlawful for employers to treat older employees differently. At the free initial consultation, you can tell us the specifics about how “my boss did …” or what happened on “my job.”
Disclaimer:
The materials available at the top of the age discrimination blog page and on this employment law website are for informational purposes only and not for the purpose of providing legal advice. If you are still asking “What should I do …”, “I’m being discriminated against …”, or “How do I …”, your best option is to contact an Ohio attorney to obtain advice with respect to any age discrimination claim questions or any particular employment law issue that you may have. Use and access to this employment law website or any of the links contained within the site do not create an attorney-client relationship for your employment law needs. The legal opinions expressed at or through this site are the opinions of the individual lawyer and may not reflect the opinions of Spitz, The Employee’s Law Firm, Brian Spitz, or any individual attorney.