Dive Brief:
- The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority, or DC Water, must pay nearly $217,000 to settle claims of alleged age discrimination filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of a former HR professional, the agency said Wednesday.
- Per the lawsuit, in September 2023, the HR professional was replaced by a younger and allegedly less qualified employee in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. This was one of several alleged replacements of older workers in the department.
- The consent decree bars DC Water from further age discrimination and mandates that the water company create “enhanced” nondiscrimination policies, issue rights notices to its employees and provide advanced training for DC Water’s HR department involving nondiscrimination compliance.
Dive Insight:
Older employees are “too often targets of unfounded or stereotyped assumptions, from lack of tech savvy to slower pace of work,” Debra Lawrence, EEOC regional attorney for the Philadelphia District, said in a statement Wednesday.
EEOC regularly enforces the ADEA, and firing a worker or a failure to hire a candidate due to age is a common thread in such lawsuits. In April, a technology consulting company settled an age-related dispute with the agency after EEOC alleged a sales director called an interviewee “too old” in an email exchange. EEOC secured $495,000 for the charging party.
The state of older workers in the U.S. is constantly evolving. While some workers battle age-related discrimination, studies suggest that older workers are also increasingly thriving in the C-suite. Outside of compliance concerns, HR should attend to older workers because the share of talent over 55 is growing in the workplace, according to reports.
“Older workers, like all workers, are entitled to be judged fairly on their own merits, and employers who target older workers for adverse action based on their age — or age-related assumptions — will hear from the EEOC,” Lawrence said.
A spokesperson for DC Water told HR Dive they are “unable to comment on a confidential settlement,” adding that they “have always been committed to adhering to federal, state, and local employment laws.”
