if your facts are correct... (0.00 / 0)

then any half smart attorney would jump at this case.  Agreements such as the one you described are in some cases not worth the paper they are written on.  in several recent cases, the courts have held that a person or group cannot waive their rights where those rights are a violation of federal law.  (duress also plays a part in this).  I would venture to say that someone will take up the cause on this one.  

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by: RR @ Mon Jul 20, 2009 at 19:34:21 PM UTC

age discrimination is very difficult to prove (0.00 / 0)

an attorney who has actually won some of these cases explained to me all the reasons why it is so hard to prove.

Also an employer based health insurance system is a very powerful incentive to discriminate against older workers.

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by: AliceDem @ Mon Jul 20, 2009 at 19:39:06 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Can't Win (4.00 / 1)

These waivers are legal for some reason.  Once they are signed, you can't sue.  And there are a hundred other reasons that this isn't something an attorney can take on.  One of them is that the damage awards can't be enough to pay the attorney's costs.

I think you see wrongful termination suits when the person can finance it, or when an organization steps in to finance it.

--

Seeing The Forest -- Who is our economy FOR, anyway? Twitter: dcjohnson

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by: DaveJ @ Mon Jul 20, 2009 at 19:53:56 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Could someone (0.00 / 0)

with enough resources to do without severance pay for awhile, refuse to sign and then sue for the severance?

I imagine the difficulty would be in proving it.  I don't suppose there is any smoking gun paper saying "we're purging everyone over 50 to save on insurance costs".

I wish you luck.  I am 56 and hanging on to a position as a software developer.  I didn't start in this industry until I was 35.  Only the fact that I am damned good at what I do has so far kept me employed, and I'm not so naive as to believe that this will last forever.


sTiVo's rule: Just because YOU "wouldn't put it past 'em" doesn't prove that THEY did it.

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by: sTiVo @ Mon Jul 20, 2009 at 21:05:37 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

class action (0.00 / 0)

and I think one could argue these agreements are invalid because they are in direct violation of discrimination law as well as force under duress.  The problem is in CA it's like they took all attorneys who would fight for labor out and shot 'em, while the entire legal profession works for corporations.  I think the only way to combat something like this is to have a class action as well as big labor like the CWA, SEIU take it on.  

they will crucify any individual, bury them in legal fees, delays assuredly.  

NoSlaves.com  


The Economic Populist

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by: Robert Oak @ Mon Jul 20, 2009 at 21:28:54 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I Concur (0.00 / 0)

The first commenter is correct. The "I will not sue" severance agreements do not restrict one's ability to sue for age discrimination. That's now well established in the courts.

Yes, it is sometimes hard to prove age discrimination.

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by: BBCWatcher @ Tue Jul 21, 2009 at 11:06:31 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

oh so true (0.00 / 0)

I know this is true because any techie who has been around awhile has seen (or experienced) this sort of massive age discrimination first hand.

I cross linked your post over on Noslaves.com.

This is a new site.  The idea is to create a community based blog, forum for U.S. Professional workers to have one common place so various individuals can start to join forces.

I'm the admin and the site is there, waiting for people to use it.

But there is no doubt in my mind Professional, advanced skill labor needs to organize.  Techies especially are just getting slaughtered by these corporate "practices" and use of NDAs, confidentiality agreements, etc. to intimidate, threaten people into silence so far as worked like a charm.  

NoSlaves.com  


The Economic Populist

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by: Robert Oak @ Mon Jul 20, 2009 at 21:23:19 PM UTC

Any union based on skilled work would have to be different from average (0.00 / 0)

It would have to be more like the writers guild.  After all offshoring isn't done mostly because it is a terrible idea.  

A union to me would be more about educating non IT based employees about IT work.  (IE they would be about changing BMW's practices rather than google's)  The way google works they understand that any individual they have might produce something worth a billion dollars in their 20% time (and I mean that quite literally).  

Whereas its mainly companies that don't know how to build software and do terrible jobs of it who do ok at outsourcing.  The quality doesn't go down because it was always terrible.

http://transgendermom.blogspot....

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by: transgenmom @ Tue Jul 21, 2009 at 11:33:22 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

So why not name the company? (0.00 / 0)

Those of us with jobs that are over 50 may be able to do all kinds of things but first we have to know which companies are doing this.  

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by: mwfolsom @ Tue Jul 21, 2009 at 03:46:58 AM UTC

Google is actually pretty proud of the fact that they have few people over age 35 (0.00 / 0)

But thats the nature of the software industry.  If you work and get 10 years of experience in Java and everything changes over to Java++ then there is less reason to hire you.  

Though I actually have real trouble believing that it is a software company.  After all expertise of a particular system is worth far far more than the difference between the health bills of someone 25 and someone who is 50.

The current place I work at is much older than average, but I think software companies don't realize the advantage of having older workers.  The advantages are mainly in the fact that they are much less willing to get pushed around and that provides a much saner working environment.

http://transgendermom.blogspot....

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by: transgenmom @ Tue Jul 21, 2009 at 11:24:59 AM UTC