In past decades, in the workplace an individual’s age equated to knowledge and experience. These more experienced employees were often highly sought-after for the unique insight and expertise they possessed. While employees age 40 and older are still certainly highly sought-after, today some industries and workplaces prefer to hire younger employees who demand lower salaries and can be trained for certain positions.
Under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, it’s illegal for employers to make hiring decisions or discriminate against employees who are age 40 and older.
A producer with CNN’s Los Angeles bureau recently filed a lawsuit against his former employer in which he accuses his former boss of racial and age discrimination. The 51-year-old veteran producer filed the wrongful termination lawsuit following his firing last January.
In the lawsuit, the 51-year-old claims that his former supervisor resented him because of his “protected characteristics.” The former CNN producer, who is of African-American and Latino descent, worked at the cable television news network for 17 years and produced numerous successful news segments and stories. Yet, despite his success in his producer position, he asserts that throughout his years with the network he applied for but was never awarded numerous higher positions.
The man’s firing came after a copy editor noted that portions of a news story he produced were similar to those published by another news outlet. The veteran producer was fired, an act that he deemed a “grossly disproportionate response.” He is seeking to recover $5 million in damages.
Source: Huffington Post, “Former CNN Employee Alleges Race And Age Discrimination In Wrongful Termination Suit,” Cavan Sieczkowski, Oct. 7, 2014