Forced Out, Older Workers Are Fighting Back

[steve2470]

http://www.aarp.org/work/on-the-job/info-2014/workplace-age-discrimination-infographic.html

?intcmp=AE-WOR-INFOG-AGE-DISC

The signs at first are disguised, then painfully apparent, they say. Solid performance reviews suddenly turn negative. Invitations to weekly and monthly meetings are no longer forthcoming. New demands and quotas seem harsh and unreasonable. In what some see as age bias, older workers are being forced out of their jobs. Read the five profiles on these pages to see how some workers are coping at this stage of their careers.

What's the law? Age discrimination claims have been on the rise since 1997, when 15,785 reports were filed, according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Last year, 21,396 claims were recorded. Not every lawsuit is valid, experts say. Many are settled without assigning blame. Companies are sometimes hamstrung by the law from giving their side of the story in age discrimination cases.

On the other hand, consumer advocates and lawyers say recorded claims represent only a slice of the total number of workers who get pushed out of a job because they are older.

One possible reason for the trend: an aging population. More than 20 percent of workers in the United States, some 33 million, are age 55 and up, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

more at link above

[TheMastersNemesis]

1. Age Discrimination Needs To Be Put Under Affirmative Action Law.

The present age discrimination law forced older workers to prove a pattern of discrimination and the penalties are too light. It is impossible to prove a pattern of discrimination when personnel records are essentially secret.

Put the law under Affirmative Action and special class laws. Under such law the COMPANY has to prove it is NOT discriminating. And if they company is discriminating a "federal overseer" is assigned to them and the company is forced to hire special classes like older workers to balance out its work force.

[LakeVermilion]

2. Does anyone think that this is related to the removal of teacher tenure?

Education could be very profitable if teachers only stayed for ten years.

[Lochloosa]

4. You do realize you are going to hear from the Teacher Brigade on that comment right?

Teacher and profitable in the same sentence....

[flamin lib]

3. It happened to me. I actually had an interviewer comment on the number of, his words, older

applicants.

It happened to my sister in law on a massive scale. The company closed an entire division with offices nationwide. Two weeks later they opened a new division under a different name with the same mission and hired all the former employees who were under 40.

After 35 years of being in the top 10% of sales, with two masters degrees calling on VPs of international companies and negotiating $ multi million deals the only job I could find at 58 was graveyard shift at a convenience store.

[closeupready]

5. Not to diminish the pain, but honestly curious, did you try consulting?

?? Or was even that avenue closed to you, at 58?

[flamin lib]

6. Yep. put together a lesson plan for sales training and schlepped it to anyone who would

see me. Nobody had any funding for training.

As for consulting inside the industry,well, it's not an option.

One of the problems with a nitch market I guess.