Red Alert to Avoid Age Discrimination Lawsuits!

Labor and Employment Law Weekly Update (Week of November 8, 2010)

Don't cross the line when suggesting retirement or questioning employees about their retirement plans.

Employers often suggest ideas to or question an employee about his or her retirement plans to actually save the employee from being involuntary terminated. For example, a common scenario may be a long-term employee over the age of 40 who is facing involuntary termination because he or she is not performing up to the company's expectations or is employed in a position that has been targeted for elimination as part of a reduction-in-force (RIF). Involuntarily terminating an employee over the age of 40 can lead to age discrimination (http://tinyurl.com/pmups) claims, so employers may attempt to convince an employee to voluntarily retire as a way to avoid an age discrimination lawsuit. The bottom line, however, is that employers may end up defending an age discrimination lawsuit as a result of