Takeaway: Even when an employee cannot establish age discrimination—for example, when the employee has been properly disciplined for poor performance—they may nevertheless show age-related harassment based on underlying circumstances suggesting that the employer targeted them based on their age.
The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals allowed an age harassment claim to proceed, emphasizing that extensive scrutiny and demeaning assignments could substantiate a hostile work environment claim despite the absence of clear age discrimination.
The plaintiff was a police officer with the City of Blue Ash, Ohio, with 33 years of experience in law enforcement, the last 17 of which were with the Blue Ash Police Department. He was 61 years old and the oldest officer in the department.
The plaintiff’s issues with the department started in 2016 when he challenged the previous year’s performance evaluation. Shortly after, his supervisors assigned him to conduct a traffic study at a local intersection, requiring him to provide weekly progress updates. Traffic studies were usually assigned to the traffic safety department, rather than to patrol officers, and the plaintiff claimed that he did not see any other police officer assigned to a similar task.
The plaintiff believed that the assignment was punishment for disputing his evaluation scores, evidence of age discrimination, and something intended to frustrate and embarrass him. From April 2016 to July 2017, the police chief and a...
numerous alleged violations of the False Claims Act with the U. S. government, which accused him of lying to obtain Small Business Administration loans meant to help companies stay afloat during th...