Saturday, July 18, 2009
(graphic: AARP)
Older workers are at greater risk of being laid off because of their age in the current economic recession, the federal government and advocates warned this week at a congressional hearing. According to statistics from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, claims of age discrimination rose 30% last year from what was reported in 2007. “That is a huge increase, and it will continue going up,” testified Cathy Ventrell-Monsees, president of the nonprofit group Workplace Fairness.
Claims are expected to rise as long as businesses struggle through the bad economy and lay off workers, especially older ones perceived to cost more money and be less adaptable, advocates said. The acting chairman of the EEOC, Stuart Ishimaru, wondered if the “the public generally realizes that age discrimination is illegal,” even though the government passed the Age Discrimination Act in Employment more than four decades ago.
Laurie McCann, an attorney for the AARP Foundation, said Congress needed to bolster the 1967 age discrimination act, lest it become “merely words on paper.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Age Discrimination Claims Jump, Worrying EEOC, Worker Advocates (by Steven Vogel, Washington Post)
Recession Pressures Stay-At-Home Moms and Older Unemployed (by Jackie Gallegos, AllGov)
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