If you believe you have suffered age discrimination at work, there are laws on your side to protect you. You will need to prove age discrimination to have a successful age discrimination case against your employer and to recover damages for your claim. You will need to provide as much physical evidence as you can to prove the alleged behavior from your employer.
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) is a federal law that protects job applicants and employees who are 40 years of age or older. Under the ADEA, employers are prohibited from firing or refusing to hire an individual simply because of his or her age. The ADEA also prohibits employers from treating employees differently as far as salary, compensation, benefits, advancement and promotion opportunities, and other aspects of their job because of their age. The ADEA applies to any private employer who has more than 20 employees and who engages in interstate commerce.
The law was enacted to help protect experience workers from being mistreated by their employers. It was enacted because of older workers being looked over for promotions, not being hired for jobs that they are capable of doing, and being fired for no legitimate reason other than they are older than the younger applicants. When a company wants to create a younger image and hire only younger people, it is breaking the law.
How To Prove Age Discrimination
If you have been given disciplinary actions from your supervisor that you believe are unwarranted or unexplained, this could indicate that you are a victim of age discrimination. Make sure to ask for and keep any documentation regarding disciplinary actions should you choose to pursue an age discrimination case against your employer.
If your manager, supervisor, or co-workers has been making derogatory remarks or jokes about your age, that can be used as direct evidence of age discrimination. You will need to keep detailed notes of any instances of direct evidence. If you have noticed a pattern of being ostracized from company functions and events, such as training programs, conferences, and other events, be sure to write down dates and times. If you notice only the younger people are getting hired on and that the younger folks are being promoted over the older employees who are better qualified, then your employer might be trying to project a younger image and you can use that against them as evidence.
How To Document Harassment
If you were the recipient of offensive or derogatory remarks about your age, whether it was from a manager, supervisor, or a co-worker, be sure to document that experience. You must be able to explain the kind of harassment you suffered, the date and time of which it happened, and who the perpetrator – co-worker or supervisor – was and what was said. If the harassment was done by email, make sure you print out physical evidence of that email.
If you have been the victim of age discrimination, you should file a report with your human resources department and be sure to keep copies of all the documents you are given during the process. If the age discrimination and harassment continue, or if you are fired simply because you brought the topic up, you may want to speak with an employee law attorney so you can get a claim underway and recover compensation for your damages.
Work With An Employee Rights Attorney
If you think that you were fired because of your age, you should seek the counsel of an employee rights attorney. If you are 40 years of age or older and you were fired despite being qualified for the position and do the work, and you are able to prove that if it hadn’t been for your age there wouldn’t have been adverse action taken, your lawyer will file a lawsuit against your employer for their actions against you.
A lawyer will be able to review the documents and the facts pertaining to your case and will determine the best way to proceed with your case. When an age discrimination attorney takes a case for someone being fired because of their age, they will not require payment out of pocket or upfront. Instead, the lawyer will take the case on the contingency basis, which means that the lawyer will not be paid until you win your claim and recover compensation for your damages.
