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EEOC claims on the rise
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Listed in this article is helpful information to mitigate your chances of an employee filing a claim against you, the employer. The EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) has seen in the last two years the largest annual increase in claims, 15% since their inception in 1985.
Age discrimination accounts for 32% of the EEOC's claims. When terminating any employee, especially someone over 40, it is important that an employee’s employment file is carefully reviewed before terminating to ensure the poor performance is well documented. On the other hand due to the economic times, many employers are laying off senior staff. Why? Because they tend to be the highest paid individuals. It can be justifiable to lay off senior staff. The laid off individual’s workload should be dispersed amongst those left employed. Replacing someone (with a junior staff member) is not a defensible reason for laying someone off, that’s looked upon as termination (and in many cases age discrimination).
If an employee were to file a suit, having a well documented file is one of the most important things an employer can do to ward off any justification in the former employee's defense.
The EEOC has also seen an increase by 22.6% of retaliation claims from 2007-2008 and these numbers have continued to rise in the last year. Reviewing your retaliation policy, ensuring your current practices conform to the policy, and reviewing the policy with employee's yearly are several defenses to ward of retaliation claims.
Several recent EEOC claims have settled for between $350,000-$800,000 and an additional $130,000 - $150,000 in attorney fees.
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