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What I've Been Reading This Week: Age Discrimination Edition


Age discrimination is a topic that I come across every so often, but not a lot of cases/developments jump out.  With that being said, given a recent age discrimination related ruling from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and two recent age discrimination suits filed against Tesla and Google, I think this is a good time to devote attention to the topic.

As always, below are a couple articles that caught my eye this week.


11th Circuit Holds "Subtle" Age Discrimination Lawful (For John Applicants)

Earlier this month, the 11th Circuit held that subtle age discrimination is lawful in regard to the hiring of job applicants.  According to the Court of Appeals, job applicants cannot benefit from the disparate impact provision of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act ("ADEA").  Instead, only employees are entitled to protections under the ADEA.  Noah Feldman over at Bloomberg breaks down the Court's ruling well and points out how the Court arrived at the somewhat surprising decision.  As Noah writes, this could be a case that ends up in the Supreme Court.  It certainly would not surprise me if that is the case.


Age Discrimination Suit Filed Against Tesla

Brittany Roston recently wrote a good article that addresses a recent age discrimination suit filed against Tesla by a former engineer.  In the suit, the former engineer claimed he was subjected to harsher treatment than his younger peers, that supervisors repeatedly singled him out, and reportedly cancelled scheduled meetings, among other complained of conduct.  The suit further alleged the engineer was ultimately fired because of his age.  Interesting case to say the least...keep an eye on this one to see how it plays out.



An age discrimination suit has been brought against Google by two software engineers who applied for positions with Google and were interviewed, although ultimately were not offered jobs.  Earlier this month, the judge in the case ruled that software engineers over the age of 40 who interviewed with Google but did not get hired can join the suit.  This ruling turns the suit into a class action and could increase the number of plaintiffs exponentially.  Google has indicated it will fight the suit...but this one is far from over.

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