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Age Discrimination?

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johntrocchi

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? MA
61 yo female highly qualified employee of college dining services has been passed over 3 times for promotion in favor of less qualified, younger applicants. Recently she was given the most undesirable schedule of all similar, younger, and less senior workers including more nights and more weekend schedules than all other younger workers. All past evaluations evaluations positive. Reason for not promoting (according to boss) was that "We run a trendy operation and you no longer fit into that mold." (There is nothing "trendy" about being a kitchen worker in a college dining service operation.)

Are these actions a violation of federal & state age discrimination laws?
 


seniorjudge

Senior Member
johntrocchi said:
What is the name of your state? MA
61 yo female highly qualified employee of college dining services has been passed over 3 times for promotion in favor of less qualified, younger applicants. Recently she was given the most undesirable schedule of all similar, younger, and less senior workers including more nights and more weekend schedules than all other younger workers. All past evaluations evaluations positive. Reason for not promoting (according to boss) was that "We run a trendy operation and you no longer fit into that mold." (There is nothing "trendy" about being a kitchen worker in a college dining service operation.)

Are these actions a violation of federal & state age discrimination laws?
Q: Are these actions a violation of federal & state age discrimination laws?

A: Yes.
 

mitousmom

Member
If your employer didn't promote you because of your age, it would violate the federal anti-discrimination law. However, not promoting you because you don't fit the employer's trendy image, wouldn't be, unless you could establish "trendy" means young.
 

BelizeBreeze

Senior Member
johntrocchi said:
What is the name of your state? MA
61 yo female highly qualified employee of college dining services has been passed over 3 times for promotion in favor of less qualified, younger applicants. Recently she was given the most undesirable schedule of all similar, younger, and less senior workers including more nights and more weekend schedules than all other younger workers. All past evaluations evaluations positive. Reason for not promoting (according to boss) was that "We run a trendy operation and you no longer fit into that mold." (There is nothing "trendy" about being a kitchen worker in a college dining service operation.)

Are these actions a violation of federal & state age discrimination laws?
Based solely on the exact wording of your post, absolutely not!
 

eerelations

Senior Member
The only thing I can think of is you could try asking your boss to please define "trendy" for you so that you could then attempt to fit into this "trendy" mold. Whether or not he's/she's violating age discrimination laws would depend largely on his/her response to this question.

However, please note there may be some risk to asking this question - he/she may feel he's/she's being put on the spot and/or that you're complaining too much and he/she may fire you for that. If you decide to do this, and you don't want to be fired, I recommend you approach him/her very gently and politely, and indicate (somehow) your readiness to back off fast if he/she appears the least bit uncomfortable with this question.
 

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