Yet another lawsuit has been filed over allegations of age discrimination. This time the lawsuit was filed against the popular oatmeal and cereal company, Quaker Oats, by a former employee, Calvin M. Brown. But what sort of age discrimination did Mr. Brown experience? How long had he been working at Quaker Oats before the alleged discrimination?
Yet another lawsuit has been filed over allegations of age discrimination. This time the lawsuit was filed against the popular oatmeal and cereal company, Quaker Oats, by a former employee, Calvin M. Brown. But what sort of age discrimination did Mr. Brown experience? How long had he been working at Quaker Oats before the alleged discrimination?
For starters, Brown worked as a full-time food packager for the company from 2003 to 2016. During that time, Brown claims that Quaker Oats “changed their policies and provided incentives for employees 55 years old and up to resign by buying their retirement benefits from them.” However, as soon as he turned 55 and was offered the deal, he turned it down. According to court documents, Brown’s refusal of the deal resulted in his suspension on June 8, 2016, though the company claimed his suspension was for a “routine and otherwise insignificant error in food packaging.” Not long after his suspension, Brown was fired for not “complying with Quaker rules and policies.”
Brown believes he was fired because of his age, and by the sounds of the new policies providing incentives for employees 55 years old and up to resign by buying their retirement benefits from them, it’s hard to argue against him. And the sad thing is, this isn’t even Quaker Oats’ first tango with age discrimination allegations. But no matter the company, no one should ever feel forced out of their job because of their age.
Unfortunately, age discrimination has been in the news a lot lately, which is unfortunate because often times older employees bring something special to the table, like experience and wisdom that younger employees just don’t possess yet. Hopefully, in the future, companies will begin to change their tune.
Sources:
Columbia man files age discrimination lawsuit against Quaker Oats
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