Legal Question in Discrimination Law in Maryland

Age discrimination

If you are over 40, and you can prove that thereason your hours were cut back was your agein favor of younger employees, you may have anage discrimination claim. You should see a lawyer experienced in such cases to go over the facts and advise you on whether you mayhave a case. If so, you need to file quickly,as the law requires that an administrativeclaim be filed within 180 or 360 days.

Availability and cutbacks may be problem for age case

There are four elements a lawyer will have to do to "make out a prima facie" case. (1) Youare in a protected class (e.g., a person over 40), (2) that an adverse job action was taken against yu(e.g., your hours were cut back) (3) that you were available to work the hours the employer needed you to work, and (4) that the persons who worked the hours in your job were less entitled (qualified) to work those hours than you were and (a) that the reason the company gave for not givingyou the hours was a pretext (for example, not merely untrue but a coverup for a reason that wasdiscriminatory) or (b) that there was something more (pretext-plus) than what happened...forinstance, x, y, and z. (Hope that your state is a "pretext-only" rather than a "pretext-plus" state.)From the very few facts you gave, it sounds like you're going to have a hard road to hoe. he younger men were employed at the company before you were and may have had a right to their jobs on a "callback" basis . . . and it is not clear whether you were available to work those hours.In other words, the company might have a legitimate reason for not only calling back the younger workers but also for giving them back their old jobs. And that's all a company has to do: articulate a legitimate or lawful reason for taking the job action they did. But go ahead to a local attorney and tell him/her your story. Maybe I'm just being a negative nabob! Good luck!