“Who ARE these “good neighbors” in our Congress and the White House who are killing jobs for the people of this country? We have been betrayed by our own people in this country. Vicious, mean-spirited and ‘brilliant’ bankers and businessmen who have squandered the treasure and the labor of honest Americans.”
AT&T Age Discrimination Suit Filed by U.S. Department EEOC
Booming News
New York (AP) – How many outsourcing/insourcing hubris diseased, sociopathic CEOs does it take to change a high-speed internet connection AND screw American white collar workers out of jobs at the same time?
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is on a roll, as they are now going after the suits at AT&T who allegedly cooked up a policy in 2006 to overlook their retired, older workers to come back and apply for work at the country's largest telecommunications provider. The EEOC is alleging that AT&T discriminated against older employees “by denying them the chance to be rehired solely because they retired under early retirement plans” including the Voluntary Retirement Incentive Program (VRIP), the Enhanced Pension and Retirement Program (EPR) or other retirement plan.
What a difference three years can make! As AT&T retirees have helplessly watched the economy tank, the government loot their pensions, their housing values plummet while insurance premiums, food, gas and cost of living expenses skyrocket, many 40 plus retirees and others now need to go back to work. So why would the suits at AT&T want to discriminate against their trusted, former workers? In a non-sociopathic work world, the spirit of community and neighborhood would prevail. But this is America.
For a refresher regarding the average CEO discriminatory war against educated American workers in frequent favor of cheap, imported and outsourced foreign workers, LWOH has reported here and here on AT&T's inhumane, discriminatory cheap labor practices and its feudal slave lord, CEO Randall Stephenson.
The EEOC said that the effect of this denial by AT&T “leads to a disproportionate number of older workers not having the same opportunity to apply for re-employment with the company as younger workers” which would amount to age discrimination.
John Yates, who originally filed the discrimination charge with the EEOC, and all other retirees who are age 40 or older are supposed to be protected by law from discrimination because of their age. But the result of AT&T's policy is to exclude this class of older workers because of their age from being reemployed by AT&T regardless of their qualifications. This violation has been ongoing since at least October 1, 2006, the EEOC said:
"We've been taking a new and hard look at age discrimination recently, and we're intent on enforcing the ADEA strategically and vigorously," said EEOC Acting Chairman Stuart J. Ishimaru. "This particular case highlights the Commission's commitment to combating age-based disparate impact discrimination."
EEOC Trial Attorney Louis Graziano said, "Federal law prohibits employers from instituting policies that adversely affect workers because of their age. AT&T's policy has that effect."
EEOC New York District Director Spencer H. Lewis added, "All employees, regardless of their age, should be permitted to complete for jobs equally. That is the fundamental right that the ADEA grants to older workers. We hope this lawsuit sends a message to such employers that the EEOC will seek relief when it finds the law has been violated."
Is it any wonder age discrimination is rampant in this country? Age discrimination has been propped up via back-door use and abuse of H-1B and green card visa programs for over twenty years. Many U.S. corporations exploit H-1B visa green card visas under the myth of a U.S. Great Labor Shortage to ship our jobs out of the country and simultaneously import cheap, foreign workers to work for less when older, educated American college graduates want and need to work, especially in this unprecedented economic downturn.
Still buying American worker hating, hubris diseased, ousted former HP CEO Carly Fiorina's old, greedy 2004 sentiment:
"There Is No Job That Is America's God-Given Right Anymore"?
Fast forward to 2009. After firing 18,000 employees, Fiorina's new incarnation as a Republican senate seat-seeking candidate now suddenly observes that Californians "have serious concerns about job creation." Ya think?
Yes, indeedy! Fiorina may be (feigning) that she got religion, as yesterday's Los Angeles Times quotes her latest mantra:
“The people of California have serious concerns about job creation, economic growth and the role of government in solving problems that touch each of our lives.”
It's not the economy, race or religion. It's a class war, stupid. It is time to put the brakes on importing cheap labor and exporting our jobs.
It's time that the EEOC, DHS, FBI, DOL and DOJ all investigate and prosecute Obama's appointees and other profitable backroom dealers of best and brightest “thought leaders” and politicians who cut special deals with India, Inc. - their favorite stealth, Cash Cow of Indian Outsourcing, cheap labor human trafficking go-to shop. How can American workers meaningfully contribute to the growth of their communities when U.S. corporations and politicians discriminate against them through illegal and legal hiring practice loopholes and sentiments? Where are the “progressive” voices to protest this practice, or is their collective self-loathing drowned in delusion?
In the meantime, support for the Durbin-Grassley S.887 - H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2009 – a bill to reform and reduce fraud and abuse to aid the legal displacement of American workers – will help remove corporate age discrimination practices by forcing U.S. companies to reengage once again with underemployed and unemployed local community professionals like John Yates and others who deserve to contribute in rebuilding the robust community character and corporate infrastructure of this once great nation – before it was hijacked by the hubris stuffed MBAs, accountants, and their bicycle shorts clad, VC enablers.
Party on, plebes!
-2Truthy
4 comments:
Age Discrimination has been around longer than Methuselah.
So have these token age discrimination cases, which occasionally are trotted out as red meat. What makes this case different is the number of older workers discriminated against by the largest telecommunications company in the world by revenue with more than $124 billion in 2008 during this country's economic downfall. Sociopathic behavior at its finest. Only in America.
How many more US corporations are doing this? How many more Americans are unable to find employment because of rigged hiring practices stacked against them? H-1B and green card visa discrimination is the ugly twin of age discrimination hiring practices.
I have been seeing more of these cases in my practice over the last three years than in my collective thirty five years of experience. This article mentions 40+ year olds but there is a spike at age 50 when (middle-upper mgmt. level employees) are clearly gunned after for WWA (Working While Ageing) regardless of their core competencies and years of experience. Navigating around the guest worker visa/DOL issue is tricky; the government seems to favor the influx of cheap labor on behalf of their corporate sponsors. Many clients work in companies that sponsor visa holders, and it is often difficult to directly prove wrongful term if said companies follow guidelines to the letter of the law. However, if this trend continues to accelerate, the EEOC is (in lieu of government intervention) the American workers' best option for seeking corporate damages resulting from legalized H-1B hiring practices.
Please republish with the latest update. You are my hope!
We will, anon!
Keep up the good fight in restoring civility and local sustainability in our workplace hiring practices to put a stop to legalized discrimination against all American citizens. Particularly those who are underemployed and unemployed.
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