The Washington Post reports that during a public hearing at the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission headquarters, experts said that “rising unemployment has left older workers vulnerable to layoffs, because they are often stereotyped by employers as costing more money and being less adaptable to change. … The hearing included emotional testimony from several people who told of losing their jobs because of their age.” In addition, “witnesses testified that the Age Discrimination Act in Employment, passed by Congress in 1967, has been decimated by several recent Supreme Court decisions that curtail the ability of older workers to challenge age discrimination.” Therefore, “they urged the commission to issue regulations and guidance that would give workers better legal standing. But, unless Congress works to restore protections, the 1967 age discrimination law will be ‘merely words on paper,’ said Laurie McCann, an attorney for the AARP Foundation.”
According to the Associated Press, EEOC “is considering new rules to protect older workers from job discrimination” following the recent Supreme Court decisions. This “action comes as age discrimination complaints to the agency, which enforces federal employment discrimination laws, rose 29 percent last year, more than any other type of bias claim.”
From the American Association for Justice news release.
