Identifying age discrimination in the employment process can sometimes be a daunting task, since the discrimination can often be concealed. Experience caps on jobs as well as targeted job advertisements that only appear on the social media pages of certain age demographics are examples of how alleged age discrimination has entered the digital world.
In a recent case, a 58 year-old, veteran lawyer from Illinois sued for failing to receive an invitation for a job interview that requested applicants have no more than seven years of relevant legal experience. He is alleging violations of the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (“ADEA”) for screening out applicants based on their age or years of experience. The lawyer claims the experience cap was discriminatory against older applicants.
The attorney’s case, now before the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago after it was dismissed by a federal trial court judge, seeks to end subtle age discrimination in the employment process. The district court ruled that the ADEA did not cover external job applicants, and thus dismissed the case. The decision was overruled by a three-judge panel on the 7th Circuit which stated that “it could not imagine why Congress would want to protect employees and internal applicants from age discrimination but not external applicants.” Should the attorney’s case succeed, job applicants would have solid precedent to fight this alleged form of age discrimination. On the other hand, should the 7th Circuit disagree with the attorney’s argument, employers could likely continue to use job advertisements and social media to filter out older applicants.
To receive knowledgeable and up-to-date advice on how to navigate this complex legal field, call the attorneys at Rock Fusco & Connelly.