EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION
BASED ON AGE
Summary
Section 201 of the Congressional Accountability
Act (CAA) applies certain rights and protections of the Age Discrimination
in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA) to covered employees. Under this
section, all personnel actions -- e.g., hiring, discharge, promotion,
pay, benefits -- affecting covered employees who are 40 or more
years of age must be free from
discrimination based on age.
The ADEA section referenced by the CAA states
a general prohibition against age discrimination in employment.
The Board has not adopted regulations on age discrimination. However,
employing offices and covered employees may find it helpful to refer
to court decisions interpreting the ADEA and Title VII, as well
as the interpretations, opinions, and other materials issued by
the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which is responsible
for implementing the ADEA.
This summary describes the rights and protections
applied by the CAA regarding age discrimination, followed by "questions
and answers."
1. Coverage
The CAA provides that all personnel actions
affecting covered employees shall be free from age discrimination.
This includes hiring, discharge, promotion, pay, benefits, reassignment,
and other personnel actions affecting the terms, conditions, and
privileges of employment.
The covered employees and employing offices subject generally to
the CAA are described in the Introductory section.
2. Age
Discrimination Prohibited
The CAA protects individuals who are at least
40 years old against age discrimination. Individuals younger than
40 are not protected, even if they are subjected to age discrimination.
The law generally
forbids the use of age as a motivating factor in personnel actions.
Employing offices may not discriminate in hiring, nor, except as
otherwise permitted, involuntarily retire someone because of age
who is at least 40 years old.
Proving motivation depends on the facts of a
particular case. For example, placing a phrase like "age 25-50"
or "young" or "college student" in a help-wanted notice or advertisement
may be evidence of discriminatory motive. Furthermore, a covered
employee may seek to prove that he or she was treated differently
from others in similar circumstances, and to prove that age was
a motivating factor. Under certain circumstances, an employing office
may need to demonstrate that it took adverse personnel action against
a covered employee for non-discriminatory reasons, and accurate
records of employees' job performance may be critical in such a
case.
A covered employee over 40 may also assert
that he or she is harassed on the basis of age. Insults, jokes,
slurs, or other conduct relating to age may be unlawful if severe,
egregious, and pervasive enough to create a hostile environment
or interfere with an individual's work performance.
3.
Exceptions
Age discrimination law generally recognizes
several exceptions. For example, a bona fide seniority or merit
system may be permissible if it is not intended to discriminate
on the basis of age. The employing office must prove that the conditions
for a particular exception have been met.
4. Waiver
The CAA makes applicable certain provisions
of the ADEA regarding waiver of rights and protections. These provisions
apply to any waiver that an employing office requests from a covered
employee in connection with an exit incentive or other employment
termination program, as well as any other waiver of a covered employee's
age-discrimination right or claim.
Any such waiver of a right or claim must be
"knowing and voluntary" and must be in exchange for consideration
in addition to anything of value to which the individual is already
entitled. This includes, among other things: that the agreement
be in writing in understandable language, that it refer specifically
to ADEA rights or claims; the individual does not waive rights or
claims that arise after the date the waiver is executed; the individual
waives rights or claims only in exchange for consideration in addition
to anything of value to which the individual already is entitled;
the individual is advised in writing to consult with an attorney
prior to signing the agreement; and that it give the individual
at least 21 days (45 days for a group exit incentive program) to
consider the agreement and at least 7 days following execution to
revoke the agreement.
5. Intimidation or Reprisal
Intimidation, reprisal, or discrimination against
a covered employee for opposing practices or for initiating or participating
in a proceeding is prohibited, as described in the Introductory
section.
6. Remedies
In case of a violation of the age discrimination
provisions of the CAA, several kinds of remedies may be available:
- The remedy may be such legal or equitable
relief as will effectuate the purposes of the ADEA, as made applicable
by the CAA. (For example, in an appropriate case, the Board or
the courts might find that the CAA authorizes an order to hire,
reinstate, or promote, or to give back pay or front pay).
- Liquidated damages are provided in an amount
equal to the amounts owing to a person as a result of the violation,
but only in a case of a willful violation. (The Board or courts
might find a willful violation if an employing office knew or
showed reckless disregard for whether its conduct was prohibited.)
A description of the generally applicable remedies (attorneys fees,
interest) and limitations (no civil penalties or punitive damages)
is found in the Introductory section.
DISCRIMINATION
BASED ON AGE
Questions and Answers
1.
Q. At what age is an employee protected from discrimination by an
employing office based on age?
A. The Age Discrimination
in Employment Act, as made applicable by Section 201 of the CAA,
prohibits discrimination against any individual aged 40 or older.
2. Q. What actions by
an employing office are unlawful when taken against an employee
aged 40 or older?
A. An
employing office is prohibited from discriminating against an employee
aged 40 or older by:
- failing or refusing to hire or discharging
any individual or otherwise discriminating against any individual
with respect to his or her compensation, terms, conditions, or
privileges or employment, because of the employee's age;
- limiting, segregating, or classifying an employee
in any way that would deprive or tend to deprive any individual
of an employment opportunity because of the employee's age.
3. Q. How does an employee establish
a claim of age discrimination?
A. By demonstrating
that an adverse action taken by an employing office was actually
motivated by age animus. For example, an employee may have direct
evidence of discrimination, or discrimination may be inferred when:
(a) the employee is within the protected age group (aged 40 or older);
(b) the employee was doing satisfactory work; (c) the employee was
discharged despite the adequacy of his or her work; and (d) the
position was filled by a younger employee.
4. Q. How can an employing
office show it did not discriminate against the employee based on
age?
A. Once an employee
makes an initial showing of discrimination, the employing office
can rebut the inference of discrimination by showing that there
was a legitimate non- discriminatory reason for the employee's treatment.
The employing office may take unfavorable action against an employee
in the protected group (aged 40 or older), where the action is based
on an employee's inability to continue to perform the job, or because
of the employee's unsatisfactory job performance.
5. Q. May an employing
office replace an employee aged 40 or older (for example aged 50)
with an employee who is also in the protected age group (for example
aged 43)?
A. It does not
matter that the newly hired employee is also within the protected
age group if the employing office in fact terminated the first employee
based on that employee's age.
6. Q. What remedies does an employee aged
40 or older have if an employing office discriminated against that
employee based on the employee's age?
A. An employee may have a
right to be hired, reinstated or promoted. In addition, an employee
may be entitled to unpaid wages or overtime compensation and liquidated
damages.
|