Monday, February 28, 2011

How to Battle Age Discrimination?

Employment discrimination includes discrimination of certain individuals at workplaces on the basis of their race, religion, age, disability, gender, or nationality. Age discrimination creates a serious psychological effect on employees. It may affect you in the process of hiring, firing, promotion, or any other wage related activities.

It is really hard for employees to fight against age discrimination. In the United States, the federal law called the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) states that age discrimination is illegal. It prohibits discrimination of people above 40 years of age in workplaces. The law is applicable for employers having at least 20 employees. Thus any unlawful job-related decisions based on the age can be avoided by the ADEA.

If you feel that you are being treated differently from other employees in a job-related aspect at the workplace, you can take the help of an age discrimination lawyer. The attorney helps in settling the dispute between the employer and the employee. If necessary, the case can be taken to a court where the attorney represents the discriminated employee in front of a jury. A complaint is first filed with the appropriate regulatory agency like the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission in the United States.

The attorney helps in collecting evidence of the discrimination. Eyewitness accounts and performance reviews can be helpful as a part of the evidence. Based on the evidence if it is found that the particular action cannot be considered as the discrimination, then the complaint is dismissed.

If the evidence proves that the employee is facing with age discrimination, the employers offer a back pay including the salary and other benefits of the employee which are to be given when not discriminated. Suppose a person is terminated because of age discrimination and he files a case against the employer, having a proper evidence, then the employee may be rehired in to the company.

It is important for every individual to stand up for their values and fight against the discriminators in a legal way.

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