Alaska Medical Center Pays $220,000 to Operating Room Staff Laid Off Due to Age Bias

Source: U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – An Alaskan medical center has agreed to pay $220,000 and other relief to settle an age discrimination lawsuit on behalf of five workers laid off and denied rehire because of their age, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced.

The EEOC charged in February 2005, the hospital laid off and refused to rehire longtime employees Gola Anderson, Lawrence Harris, Milagros Lopez, Rebecca Petrie and Canijie Sadiku, following a restructuring of the hospital’s operating room. The five employees had devoted between 11 and 24 years of their careers as surgery aides and anesthesia technicians to the hospital and all had hoped to retire from there one day. The EEOC said the five employees, ages between 46 and 56, lost their jobs due to their age, and were replaced by new hires in their twenties and thirties.

Such alleged conduct violates the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). The EEOC filed suit after first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement.

Under the three-year consent decree resolving the case, approved by U.S. District Court Ralph B. Beistline, the medical center denied liability, but agreed to pay $220,000 to compensate the employees for wages lost as a result of losing their jobs. The medical center will also revise its policies, provide training on discrimination and retaliation for operating room employees, and file regular reports with the EEOC for monitoring in addition to other injunctive relief.

“Employers have a duty to ensure that they do not run afoul of the law when they restructure their workforce,” said EEOC San Francisco Regional Attorney William R. Tamayo. “We commend (the medical center) for working cooperatively to resolve this lawsuit and believe that the relief provided in the consent decree will prevent something like this from happening in the future.”

The EEOC brought the lawsuit against the hospital after a neutral investigation conducted by EEOC investigator Mercedes Casasola, and after the agency first attempting to a reach voluntary settlement out of court.

EEOC San Francisco District Director Michael Baldonado noted, “Unfortunately, age bias continues to be a persistent problem in the 21st century workplace – four decades after passage of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. The EEOC will continue to fight for the rights of older workers.”

During Fiscal Year 2008, the EEOC received a record 24,582 age discrimination charge filings, a 29 percent increase from the prior year and a 65 percent jump from the number of filings in FY 2005 (14,893).

According to its web site, the medical center is Alaska’s largest private employer, with over 4,000 employees serving the Alaska communities of Anchorage, Matanuska-Susitna Valley, Kodiak Island, Seward and Valdez.

The EEOC enforces federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the EEOC is available on its web site at www.eeoc.gov.

For more information on the ADEA or to protect your company against potential liability with training and resources, please contact Berkshire Associates at 800.882.8904 or email bai@berkshireassociates.com.