Protect yourself against Discrimination of Age

There is an act called age discrimination act and this act was developed to protect the rights of older workers, who find it difficult to retain employment and to get reemployed after getting displaced from the job. Various sections of the ADEA were amended by the older worker benefits protection act. In addition, age discrimination is also protected by the civil rights act of 1901. People of 40 years of age and above are protected under this act for the employment discrimination that is based on age.

Setting of arbitrary age limits was the common practice among the employers, regardless of the potential left and the job performance. It was observed that unemployment, especially the long run unemployment was relatively low at the young age and higher at the older age. And this practice was gradually growing.

Under ADEA these are the things that are unlawful for employers:

If an employer is not hiring, has discharged any individual or done any kind of discrimination against an individual regarding compensation, terms and condition after considering the age of an employee.

If an employer has segregated or has classified any employee in any way that has affected the employment opportunities or has affected the status of an employee because age factor.

If an employer has reduced the wage rate of that employee, just to comply with the employment act.

It will be considered as unlawful activity for an employment agency that has discriminated any individual or has classified any individual because of the age factor.

Labor organizations cannot discriminate or cannot expel any labor from their membership because of the age factor. Right to limit, segregate and classify because of the individual’s age is also included in this.

As per the act, an employer cannot even discriminate any individual even under the apprenticeship program because of the age of an individual. Age limitations exist in the apprenticeship program but if they are under specific exceptions under ADEA.

Employment agencies are not allowed to publish any kind of advertisement or notice regarding preferences, discriminations based on the age. It is considered as an illegal activity.

ADEA was amended by the older worker benefit protection act just to assure that no employer can deny any kind of benefits to older employees. It was recognized that giving some benefits to older employees are not favourable for employers rather than giving these benefits to younger employees. Therefore there are some situations in which employers may reduce or give fewer benefits to older employees.

In some circumstances age limit can be specified, where age limit has been proven a bona fide occupational qualification.

Private employers who have 20 or more employees working in his organization, employment agencies, local government and labor organizations are covered under ADEA.

17837 charges of age discrimination were received by the EEOC in 2004. And out of them 15792 cases were resolved by EEOC. 60$ million were recovered as monetary benefits after charging the parties. Monetary benefits received from litigation are not included in this.