New York employees may be interested to learn that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was reportedly investigating a number of layoffs that occurred at Intel. According to sources, it was suspected that the company discriminated against older employees after initiating more than 10,000 layoffs across the globe.
The layoffs began in 2016. During a round of layoffs that involved about 2,300 employees, it was found that the median age of the involved employees was 49. This median age was seven years older than the median age of the employees who were kept by the company. The EEOC had not determined at the time whether or not it would file a class-action lawsuit against the company.
A representative for the company said that the layoffs were part of a restructuring effort. They said that all employment decisions were based on the skill sets needed to move the company from a PC company to one that could focus on building and powering billions of connected computing devices. However, the tech industry has seen age discrimination allegations before as this particular industry often places high value on younger employees.
There are many reasons a company may want to layoff older workers, such as employee cost. However, it is illegal for companies to terminate or layoff an employee based on his or her age. If there is evidence that ageism was a leading factor in the determination of whether or not an employee was fired, that employee may have the grounds to file an age discrimination claim against the employer. An attorney may use evidence such as emails, texts, or company employee termination patterns to demonstrate that the company did base their decision on the former employee’s age.
