Company Agrees to Pay $105,000 to Settle Age Discrimination Lawsuit After EEOC Finds Management’s Excuses Didn’t Hold Water
Having represented age discrimination victims for more than two decades, our Citrus County employee rights lawyers know that employers violate the law against age discrimination in numerous ways, including repeatedly asking a worker about their plans to retire, claiming to eliminate their position for financial reasons, and then hiring a younger worker into that same position soon after. In the case of EEOC v. J&M Industries, Inc. (Civil Action No. 2:23-cv-01100), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) clearly didn’t fall for this employer’s tricks and pressed a lawsuit against the company. Rather than face further litigation, the company agreed to settle the case with a substantial payment to the former employee who was illegally fired because of her age.
J&M Industries, Inc., is a manufacturing and distribution company based out of Ponchatoula, Louisiana. According to the allegations laid out in the civil complaint against the company, J&M Industries fired an employee due to her age. As the woman was approaching her 65th birthday, as laid out in the complaint, a manager at the company repeatedly asked the employee when she was going to retire. Once the employee made clear her intentions to remain in the company’s employ in her position as purchasing agent, she was told that her position was being eliminated due to “economic uncertainty,” and she was summarily dismissed. However, within a month she was replaced with a man in his thirties who was hired on in the same position – purchasing agent.
Based on the facts described above, the EEOC brought an age discrimination case against J&M Industries out of the agency’s New Orleans Field Office, which is part of the Houston District Office covering the state of Louisiana as well as parts of Texas. On February 1, the EEOC announced it had settled with the company for $105,000, which will be paid to the former employee as compensation for the age discrimination she experienced. The dollar amount is a combination of back pay and liquidated damages assessed against the employer.
In addition to the monetary penalty, J&M Industries will be under a three-year consent decree, during which time it will be required to train its managerial employees about age discrimination and unlawful workplace practices. The company will also have to revise its policies and post a notice at the workplace that affirms its obligations under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). The ADEA is a federal law that prohibits discrimination in employment based on age, protecting individuals 40 years old and older from adverse consequences stemming from age-based employment decisions. J&M will also be mandated to submit reports regularly to the EEOC for the duration of the consent decree.
Marion County Age Discrimination Lawyers
Based in Ocala, Florida, and representing workers throughout Florida, our Marion County employment discrimination lawyers have been litigating age discrimination cases in Florida for over twenty years. If you have been the victim of discrimination at work based on age or other protected characteristics, or if you have questions about your rights as the victim of employment discrimination, please contact our office for a free consultation. Our employee rights law firm takes employment discrimination cases on a contingency fee basis. This means that there are no attorney’s fees incurred unless there is a recovery and our attorney’s fees come solely from the monetary award that you recover.