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It seems surprising in an era where people are living longer, healthier lives and working well into their late sixties and seventies that age discrimination would remain a problem, especially for 40 year olds. But, it is.
In Los Angeles, the Enterprise Rent-A-Car company has come to a compromise and settled an age discrimination dispute. The Enterprise of Los Angeles has agreed that it will pay $425,000 to applicants who filed an age-discrimination complaint through the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. In order to avoid litigation, the company agreed to the settlement. The complaint filed stated that between 2008 and 2011, multiple job candidates over the age of 40 were not given a job simply due to their ages.
After the EEOC investigated the claims, it found that there were not any people over the age of 40 who had been hired to the management trainee position over the course of three years. There were 10 suitable applicants who were passed over in favor of younger candidates who allegedly had less qualifications for the position. The office also failed to keep information on the applications, which is a violation of federal law.
Enterprise has argued that the applicants weren’t hired simply due to being unqualified, but it agreed to settle the lawsuit to avoid litigation. In addition, the company must redistribute anti-discrimination policies to all employees and provide further training to help prevent discrimination and to maintain records properly.
Workers over the age of 40 need to watch for signs of age discrimination. Employers need to make sure that they have educated their managers and other staff to avoid age discrimination in hiring.
Source: Los Angeles Times, “L.A. Enterprise Rent-a-Car to settle age discrimination charges,” Samantha Masunaga, July 14, 2015