Boeing Co. has been accused of age discrimination by an engineers union. The age discrimination claims were filed on a recent Thursday, and they claim that Boeing has been conducting a wide-sweeping ouster of its older workforce. Although this lawsuit was filed in another state, age discrimination is very common in Florida — a state that is home to many older and semi-retired workers.
The age discrimination charges were filed through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and a state human rights commission. The suit was filed by the engineers union known as the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace. According to union representatives, evidence against Boeing is overwhelming. Allegedly, the aerospace firm created a large-scale plan of age discrimination, which it applied throughout the company. As a part of that scheme, workers’ jobs were outsourced to India, Russia and other areas of the planet in order to oust aging members of Boeing’s workforce.
Among the various allegations were claims of a secret scheme to manipulate corporate statistics that are used to decide the order in which employees shall be laid off. The lawsuit says that this manipulation was illegal, and it drastically increased the vulnerability of elderly employees to layoff. The lawsuit further accuses Boeing of carrying out an intentional purge of its elderly workers.
Age discrimination is a very important issue that must be addressed in Florida if all workers are to be treated fairly under the law. Indeed, as the baby boomer population approaches retirement age, some employers may be guilty of trying to inappropriately fire older workers simply because of their advanced ages. Age discrimination claims — just like race, sex and religious discrimination claims — can be a way for older workers in Florida to fight for their rights, get compensated for financial damages incurred as a result of the discrimination and, in some cases, get re-instated back into their former jobs.
Source: postandcourier.com, “Engineers union charges Boeing with age discrimination”, Warren L. Wise, July 24, 2014