Legal Question in Discrimination Law in California
Age discrimination
This big corporation has a small local office with few hundred people. As part of the cost cutting this corp has moved most of the work from this local office to offshore. Due to this there were 2 layoffs recently. In all these lay offs, at least 80% of the people affected are full time employees who are aged 40+ (forty plus). Also they have not terminated any contractors (mostly aged below 40). When asked about this local management has told, "our company does not differentiate between employees and contractors and the recent layoffs were part of cost cutting and making the unit more efficient". Also, in the lay off few affected people are whistle blowers who pointed to senior management (outside this local office) that this local office hires contractors (which are not needed, as some of the contractors are less qualified and sit idle most of the time) to take kick backs from contracting companies (as the management insist candidates to go through certain sub-contracting companies only - These are not preferred vendors. These candidates go through sub-contracting companies which are not regulated and work for the preferred vendor). The senior manager (VP) who received these complaints has left the company few months before these lay offs.
The corporation is nice to the employees in the sense, they are giving paid time after lay off to look for job. I like to know the possibility of discrimination and whistle blower retaliation lawsuit against the local management. Big corporation could be part of this as they have not addressed the matters after the VP left. Do you think there is a case? Any reply is appreciated.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Lay off cases are never easy because of the attitude the courts have to not want to second guess managerial discretion deciding how to evaluate its personnel and who to keep and who to let go. It takes persuasive evidence to show discriminatory intent or an adverse impact on a protected class of employees.
It would be impossible to evaluate the merits of such a case without conducting an investigation. One way to initiate an investigation is to file an age discrimination complaint with the California Dept. of Fair Employment and Housing or the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. It may take some time, but these agencies can obtain information not accessible to private counsel, without having to resort to expensive litigation first.
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