Job discrimination claims rise to record levels

Eve Tahmincioglu • Profile • E-mail

When Hans Bongers was laid off from Tesla Motors Inc. in late February, he began to suspect it was his age that may have landed him a pink slip.

After more than two years as a senior manufacturing test engineer for the San Carlos, Calif.-based firm, he wondered why at age 51 he got a pink slip but his co-workers, all under 40, didn’t.

“I think they’re trying to realign the whole organization to be younger, trying to green up the engineers,” he said.

A Tesla Motors spokeswoman denied the allegations, but Bongers suspects he was discriminated against.

He’s not alone.

Discrimination claims filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission jumped 15 percent in fiscal 2008 to 95,402 — the highest level since the agency opened in 1965, said spokesman David Grinberg. That is up from 82,792 claims filed the year before by workers who believe they were discriminated against because of age, race, religion, gender or other reasons.

During tough economic times, discrimination claims tend to rise because more people are losing their jobs and searching for new ones.

And it could get worse.

Job discrimination claims on the rise
“It's possible we have yet to see the full impact of the recession on discrimination charge filings as the economy continues to spiral downward since fiscal year 2008,” Grinberg said.

He predicts that job bias cases may swell to more than 100,000 in the current fiscal year that began Oct. 1 due to “ongoing mass layoffs and scant hiring, among other factors.”

“There may also be a lag time regarding incoming discrimination cases, as individuals have 180 days to file a charge with the EEOC, and up to 300 days at some state and local agencies,” he said.

Preliminary figures to be released by the EEOC this week show that claims of age discrimination saw the biggest jump last year, up 28.7 percent to 24,582. Retaliation claims, in which employees believe they were fired or demoted based on their complaints of bias or other issues in the workplace, saw the second-largest increase.

Harsh economic conditions, the need by workers to justify or secure compensation for job loss and the frenzy to cut costs have created a volatile mix in the workplace, said Jim Sokolove, a pro-labor attorney in Newton, Mass.

“Unless people have the sophistication to deal with tough times and large layoffs, there’s going to be problems,” he says, referring to how employers handle work force reductions. “Many haven’t had the experience to say, ‘Hold it a second, you can’t just cut across the board. You have to look at regulations dealing with protected workers.’ ”

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