According to the EEOC, the theater company terminated health insurance when the workers turned 65

Diving certificate:

• A New Mexico-based movie theater company “forcibly retired” a 72-year-old worker as part of a workforce reduction and denied him health benefits after he turned 65 A complaint filed on Friday from the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
• Allen Theaters, Inc. violated the age discrimination in employment law by terminating the worker, a city manager, after 30 years of employment and replacing him with a 30-year-old worker with three years of experience. According to the EEOC, the theater also had a policy of denying health insurance to workers once they turned 65.
• EEOC sought injunctive relief as well as back pay (including loss of employee benefits), prejudgment, pre- and post-judgment interest, and liquidated damages. Allen Theaters did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Insight into the dive:

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act Protects employees age 40 and older from discrimination in all aspects of employment, including hiring, firing, pay, job assignments, promotions, layoffs, training, and benefits.

According to the EEOC, the theater company’s president testified that his decision to force the worker to retire was legal because he was of “normal retirement age.” He also testified that he believed a man of that age “would not like to work at night,” although the worker made no comments to that effect, EEOC said.

Pressuring workers to retire – or attempting to force retirement through termination – is a common way companies run afoul of the ADEA. For example, supposedly Covenant Woods Senior Living, a retirement community in Georgia fired a 78-year-old receptionist After inquiring about her retirement plans and asking why she hadn’t retired yet, according to a similar EEOC lawsuit filed in February. Covenant Woods has reached an agreement this case in April for $78,000.

Companies are also prohibited from denying benefits to older workers based on their age, a protection added to the ADEA by the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act of 1990.

“Congress recognized that the cost of providing certain benefits to older workers is higher than the cost of providing the same benefits to younger workers, and that these higher costs could create a disincentive to hire older workers,” EEOC stated in one Age discrimination fact sheet. “Under certain circumstances, an employer may be permitted to reduce certain benefits on the basis of age, as long as the cost to the employer of providing those benefits to older employees is not less than the cost of providing the benefits to younger employees .”