Proving Age Discrimination in Workforce Reduction Cases
How can older workers prove age discrimination when they are part of a reduction in force? The best way to prove any kind of employment discrimination is to focus hard on the explanations provided by the company. This is even more important when an employee is part of a group termination. By focusing on the details, it sometimes becomes clear that the explanations are not logical and this can expose the real motive for the firing.
In EEOC v. Tin, for example, the plaintiff did a good job of questioning the explanation provided by the company. In Tin, an Arizona plant manager was fired and replaced by someone 15 years younger. The company said the younger manager was more qualified because the younger person used to manage a very profitable plant. But by focusing on the details of a plant managers job, it became apparent that a plant's profitability was not impacted by the plant manager. Instead, plant profitability was driven by other factors that were outside of the manager's control.
The Court ruled that plant profitability was not an indication that the younger manager was more qualified. In rejecting the companies argument, the Court allowed the age discrimination claim to advance to trial and denied the companies motion for summary judgment. The details won the day in that case and prevented the company from getting the case dismissed.
