Employer Tries to Make Age Discrimination Suit “Go Away”, Gets Hit with Retaliation Suit

Joyce Gannon of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette brings us the story of a case of alleged discrimination in Pennsylvania.

When Pittsburgh Glass Works took over management of auto glass production facilities in 2009, the company laid off around a hundred workers, and seven of these workers were men over age 50. The seven filed an EEOC complaint as well as a federal age discrimination lawsuit against PGW. They claimed that, despite their good performance and experience, they were fired in order to make room for minimally-trained younger workers.

One of these plaintiffs, Rudolph Karlo, was rehired months later through a subcontractor as a shift supervisor. At one point, a PGW manager suggested to Karlo that he could possibly secure a full-time position if he would just drop the age discrimination suit. Karlo refused to do so, and was fired again.

As a result, the jury involved in the case at the US District Court in Pittsburgh found that this action constituted retaliation, and PGW was ordered to pay twice the damages for lost wages.

Read the original article here.