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Jury Awards Dockworker $257,500 in Age Discrimination Suit

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As stated in an earlier blog post, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) prohibits employers from discriminating against employees based on the basis of age  when an employee is over the age of 40. It can sometimes be difficult for Houston employment lawyers to prove age discrimination in a work environment, but a recent case shows that such discrimination suits are filed and that there can be a favorable outcome for the employees.

LawyersandSettlements.com reports that Donald Wayne Smith was employed as a dockworker with Central Freight Lines in Houston for 45 years before he was laid off from his position in 2006, when he was 62 years old. During his last months of employment, the company changed its layoff guidelines so that part-time and supervisory employees were exempted from layoffs. Mr. Smith claimed in a lawsuit that Central Freight Lines kept younger workers that had worse work records than he had and that the new guidelines put in place were specifically designed to ensure his layoff.

Representitives from Central Freight Lines argued that the decision to terminate Mr. Smith, along with guideline changes, were made in order to cut costs; which is considered to be a legitimate business decision.

Yet a jury ended up ruling in favor of the former dockworker and awarded $257,500 to Mr. Smith. ADEA was passed into a law in 1967 to protect older workers like Mr. Smith. FindLaw states that the law is particularly supposed to discourage businesses from targeting older workers when cutting staff members.

For more information, please visit our Related Resources links.

Related Resources:

  • Age Discrimination (FindLaw)
  • Avoiding Age Discrimination (FindLaw)
  • Age is Different: Supreme Court Raises Bar For Age Discrimination Claims (FindLaw)
  • Houston Employment Lawyer Directory (FindLaw)

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