The following article was first published on Shipman & Goodwin attorney Dan Schwartz’ Connecticut Employment Law Blog. It is reposted here with permission.
I’ve been writing this blog long enough that, let’s just say, that retirement is closer than it was when I started. Heck, I’ve even had friends retire early recently.
But here’s a question that I sometimes hear: is an employer’s reference to retirement enough to satisfy a claim of age discrimination?
Not always but maybe when it is combined with other pieces of evidence, it can at least get an employee’s claim to a jury trial. At least according to a recent federal court decision in Connecticut.
In Daniels v. LMV Healthcare, Inc., a District of Connecticut court denied summary judgment on an age discrimination claim after the hiring manager made references to the plaintiff’s retirement status during and after the selection process.
The employer won on the retaliation claims, but the discrimination case will go to a jury.
In that case, a laboratory technician with 41 years of experience and a preferred license, applied for an internal 24-hour per week position.
She was competing with a recent graduate who held a per diem role. Both met the minimum qualifications.
During the interview, the hiring manager allegedly told the employee that she “didn’t need the job.” The recent graduate was hired. The stated rationale was operational: hiring him filled his per diem slot and avoided a scheduling gap.
What...
White House border czar Tom Homan fired back on Sunday's "State of the Union" after Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., accused U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE") of targeting parents at sch...