This is a tough issue. You need to speak with a lawyer. It is possible that you will be required to speak to EEOC as you are in the HR department and may be someone cited in the action, but you need legal advice.
This certainly sounds like the practice of age discrimination, but you are also putting your own job in jeopardy. Your company may have an anonymous Employee Assistance Program that can provide you with some free legal advice and help you decide what to do.
If you company has instructed you not to talk to EEOC, you may need to get some sort of formal written instruction along with a script for what to say and who to refer the representative to. But please get some legal advice before you do anything.
If we have any labor lawyers or senior HR execs who can chime in, please do so.
Hi everyone,
I'm new. This message got me in here. This group has an important calling.
It's almost hard to imagine that, with all the discrimination laws, people would be so adament and straight out about not hiring qualified people so that they can, instead, hire young, unqualified people. Is that really, really the situation? Wow.
Of course, legally, I can't give advice as to how to get around the "their word against yours" situation, in order to prosecute them in some way. It is good, however, that a group of people are involved rather than just one person. "Theirs against ours."
Yes, your job is in jeapordy, if they win the case at any level. I don't know what your financial situation is but, if I was in that situation, it would stab at me every time I hid the truth from someone (assuming that I was really told not to hire older people, or any kind of people for no good reason). It would really hack at my personal integrity. If I had any other way to give my talents elsewhere and had the confidence, skills, and/or faith in myself or something bigger than myself, I would have to be part of the truth and risk my job. I wouldn't be able to keep saying things to people that aren't true, take part in discrimination, and even the idea of hiring less qualified people is against my feelings for business, unless, the job is designated to be a trainee or partially trainee job or trainee program that is legitimately intended for that purpose and legally sanctioned.
I don't like to do anything that I wouldn't want on the front page of my local or national newspaper. That's kind of how I measure my being true to my own standards for myself. If I wouldn't want the people I care about and respect to know that I was taking part in something, then, I probably wouldn't want to be doing it, if I saw or believed there is another way, a way that is really "right" for me. This is very individual. A devout realist would be extremely cautious and strategic. A person of religious or spiritual great faith would believe that they are never required to do what feels not right to them. And there is in between. Many people are on the fence because it can be very hard to commit to that kind of thing. It does take balls. Oh, I'm not leaving out the fact that there are also really down to earth, financially skilled people of faith. I've met them and that is where I get my advice whenever I can.
Life decisions like this feel very important to me. Anything law or activity, or spoken word that picks on any group feels extremely distorted and wrong to me. I have compassion for myself and anyone else as we move through decisions that are tough and maybe self-defining. Wow! another great opportunity to see who I am and question myself and clarify what is important to me. The values part of what we choose to live.
I wish you and the whole situation the perfect solution. Big changes, though, usually experience a sort of revolution or upset before things are better and stable and we see the manifestation of the "perfect solution". Blessings to you as you move through this. And I am new and hope to meet and get to know the people here. How great to have one another for support!
BillieB.
Get yourself a lawyer, pronto!
If you aren't cooperating with the EEOC investigation, ma'am, you are most likely being cited as one of is subjects!
Don't let your employer and their lawyers represent you, either. They will toss you under the bus in a New York minute to protect the company officers.
I've worked as a paralegal on many of these cases: hiring line employees are the ones the company will blame when the going gets rough. If the EEOC levies fines...and you are cited as the company rep who did the act...not only will you find yourself getting sued in civil court by the members of the class action...the Company may very well sue you also for what they would concider the damnage YOU did to them saying that you acted on your own!
Run, fly or dive as fast as you can to the nearest Shyster with a Shingle!
this in fact could be labeled a conspiracy to violate federal laws...where oh where is hard-nosed prosecutor when one could be useful? business ethics have disappeared. another result is a lack of sense and responsiveness to the customer which leads to further irritations with the businesses. it does not look good out there.
in the meantime, save any and all memos detailing those directives and blow the whistle...or at least be prepared to do that. might save you from having a female roommate for bit of time.
posted by amond
10 months ago
This scares me to death because I am 53 yrs. old and I recently lost my husband and I've taken time off from working so that I could deal with his loss (which was sudden). I feel I will be ready to get back into the work force in another month or two. My profession is medical insurance ,billing, etc.. So this scares me when you say this because I have to work eventually and I can't work in retail standing for long at periods of time and I need to make real money not minimum wage greeting people at Wal-Mart or flipping burgers at McDonalds. Why does age matter so much, because the employer wants some one who is not seasoned , not hip to their rights as an employee, someone that they can mold, someone who won't challenge them, virtually a dummy.
Having been in several Executive HR positions for 15+ years, I agree with everything that is being said here. The only way this bank could get away with open age discrimination is if age was a BFOQ (Bonefide Occuapational Qualification). A simple example to understand would be if an actor was needed to play the role of an 15 year old...a 50 year old normally would not qualify unless the person was extremely young looking. Hiring a 15 year old, then, would fall under a BFOQ. I can't imagine any position in a bank being a justified BFOQ.
I believe there are two sides of the coin that you have to consider in this situation....legal and moral issues.
Legally, just the fact that you have been told not to talk to the EEOC is proof that those in the Bank who are telling you not to hire over 30 applicants, know they are doing so illegally. Be careful. You could end up as party to the lawsuit, along with the Bank. The first thing I would do is get legal advice from a good employment law attorney who is separate from your employer.
Morally, I, personally, would cooperate with the EEOC. But, only you can decide if this bank's 'policy' lines up with your values. Are you able to sleep at night knowing what you have been asked to do?
I, as everyone else who has replied to your post, wish you the best in whatever decision you make.
Definitely a tough situation. I hope you have spoken with a lawyer by now. Please let us know how you make out in this challenging situation.
Wendy
Yes there is a law suit and the EEOC is involved at this point and time I also had to hire my own attorney which is not good at all this whole case make's me sick. If the Bank would have done the right thing when it come' s to there hiring people of age this all would not be happening at all. Now what should I do paying for a lawyer and this cost me a lot of money any other helpful hint's. And no I could not sleep at night because this could happen to anyone even my self.
I'm so sorry that it's gone this far. I'm not sure from your last post if you're being implicated in the suit, or you thought it wise to come forward before the suit and hire an attorney to protect yourself. At this point, there isn't much more you can do but be truthful and listen to your attorney's advice. I hope (s)he is a good one. Please keep us posted.
Another thing you should keep in mind is that, if the bank tries to retaliate and fire you, you have rights to sue under the federal whistleblower's law.
I've seen this kind of age discrimination in my own job searches here, and been given some of the most transparent excuses...I'm overqualified; they went with a "slightly different skill set", when all my skills completely dovetail with the position; they went with someone "perkier," (I kid you not)....whatever happened to qualified, competent and professional?
Oh yeah, I forgot...they have to pay me more; I know my rights; and they'll burn me out faster, asking me to do two jobs for the price of one.
