SECURITY COMPANY ZONKED FOR AGE & DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION
In early May, Maximum Security, a security company based out of Queens, New York, agreed to settle a discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
Apparently, the company had assigned its 57-year-old employee to its hotel clients where he acted as a liaison to the local fire department during an emergency. But after he suffered a heart attack, back in December 2020, and returned to work, the company encouraged him to retire (given his age and medical condition), and later fired him on those same grounds.
Believing that such conduct violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), the EEOC filed suit (EEOC v. Maximum Security NYC, Inc., Civil Action No. 1:22-cv-05641) in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, seeking monetary damages and injunctive relief.
In addition to paying the impacted individual $22,500, the company agreed to modify its employment and training related policies and practices.
By way of a written statement, Daniel Seltzer, a trial attorney in the EEOC’s New York District Office, noted that “Age and disability discrimination are unjust and unlawful …. An employer cannot rely on stereotypes or fears to deny employees the opportunity to work.”
Think Maximum maxed out there?
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