Age Discrimination Claims Suffer Court Defeat, Congress Fights Back
In June of 2009, age discrimination victims suffered a major setback in the U.S. Supreme Court. In a 5 to 4 decision, the nation's high court ruled in Jack Gross v. FBL Financial that workers needed to meet a higher burden of proof to show age discrimination. Direct evidence of discrimination was no longer enough. Now, according to the majority opinion, an employee has to prove that discrimination was the deciding factor. With the fastest growing segment of our population being older Americans, this decision has wide reaching implications.
A group of lawmakers introduced legislation on October 6th to overturn the Supreme Court's opinion and restore what they claim was the original intent of age discrimination laws.
EEOC's counsel, Jean Kemp, said, "In the ADEA, Congress guaranteed those older workers that so long as they are performing, they cannot be put on the street merely because of their age."
Jack Gross sued his employer FBL Financial after he was demoted and a younger worker was given his job. At the time, Jack was 55 years old and had received consistent top performance appraisals ranking him in the top 3% of the company. He and other co-workers over the age of 50 suddenly and without any reason found themselves demoted. An Iowa court found in his favor and awarded him $47,000. That award was later overturned on appeal. The Supreme Court's ruling in that appeal is widely criticized by discrimination lawyers and employee advocates.
Dozens of Democrats in Congress are now backing a bill called POWADA (Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act). If not enacted quickly, the legislation faces a tougher fight after 60 new Republicans are sworn in for the next Congress. Some Republicans, however, are supporting the bill as is the powerful AARP, an advocacy group for older Americans.
Age discrimination is difficult to prove. Rarely is their a "smoking gun" in these cases. The Supreme Court's decision tore up years of case law and simply rewrote the rules in favor of employers. The last word, however, belongs to Congress.
Because older Americans tend to vote more than other sections of the population, their vote is important to both Democrats and Republicans. The battle lines are drawn with Democrats, labor advocates and the AARP on one side and business owners seeking to cut costs and avoid regulations on the other. How the Republicans will vote remains to be seen.
President Obama has said he will sign the bill if passed by Congress.
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