It’s kind of crazy to read about the requirement one must show to prove age discrimination. It seems from this article that for age discrimination, one actually needs to show less than in race or gender discrimination. One only needs to show it was “a determinative factor” in the termination of employment. How do you think health care costs (i.e., the increased costs associated with older employees) influence the probability that organizations might use age as a “determinative factor”?
Does the arbitration agreement hold in states where employees are considered at will? And how would an organization even go about creating an objective process to downsize???
Do you think juries take the fact that organizations probably have tens of thousands of dollars ready to hire lawyers to defend these types of cases, while individuals likely do not have this money?
I wonder about the effect of the judges being an average age of 60 (white males)? Could this have any influence at all? It would be interesting to study the judgments of different judges regarding these cases.
It is important that management and those making RIF decisions about individuals understand the psychological, ethical, and legal impact and risks of their decisions, but also the legal implications of the words they choose even in "private" conversations or off-the-cuff comments. An organization could face expensive legal ramifications for comments made by unscrupulous managers even when the termination of an employee over the age of 40 was justified on the basis of performance or business necessity. How do I-Os educate organizations and managers about the importance of sensitivity in their words as well as their actions? April 18, 2011 8:50 AM
How does forcing pre-hires to sign an arbitration clause influence the selection process? So if one does not agree to sign this document regarding potential future discrimination charges in the course system, then will they still hire the individual?
This article was mainly focused on age discrimination. Do you think their findings and conclusions would generalize to other forms of discrimination (e.g., racial)?
It’s kind of crazy to read about the requirement one must show to prove age discrimination. It seems from this article that for age discrimination, one actually needs to show less than in race or gender discrimination. One only needs to show it was “a determinative factor” in the termination of employment. How do you think health care costs (i.e., the increased costs associated with older employees) influence the probability that organizations might use age as a “determinative factor”?
ReplyDeleteDoes the arbitration agreement hold in states where employees are considered at will? And how would an organization even go about creating an objective process to downsize???
ReplyDeleteDo you think juries take the fact that organizations probably have tens of thousands of dollars ready to hire lawyers to defend these types of cases, while individuals likely do not have this money?
ReplyDeleteI wonder about the effect of the judges being an average age of 60 (white males)? Could this have any influence at all? It would be interesting to study the judgments of different judges regarding these cases.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt is important that management and those making RIF decisions about individuals understand the psychological, ethical, and legal impact and risks of their decisions, but also the legal implications of the words they choose even in "private" conversations or off-the-cuff comments. An organization could face expensive legal ramifications for comments made by unscrupulous managers even when the termination of an employee over the age of 40 was justified on the basis of performance or business necessity. How do I-Os educate organizations and managers about the importance of sensitivity in their words as well as their actions?
ReplyDeleteApril 18, 2011 8:50 AM
How does forcing pre-hires to sign an arbitration clause influence the selection process? So if one does not agree to sign this document regarding potential future discrimination charges in the course system, then will they still hire the individual?
ReplyDeleteThis article was mainly focused on age discrimination. Do you think their findings and conclusions would generalize to other forms of discrimination (e.g., racial)?
ReplyDelete