• 10
  • November
    2011

Business downsizing in this economy is nothing unusual, rare or illegal. When a company cannot afford to pay their employees, they are allowed to decrease staff. What is illegal in California is when an employer uses downsizing as a front for wrongful termination based upon illegal motives such as age discrimination.

A California teacher filed suit this week against the school where she was formerly employed, the head of the school and the board president. The suit lists 13 labor violations related to her termination including age discrimination and national origin discrimination.

The 77-year-old Israeli teacher was hired in 2001 in a private California school as a teacher with a foreign language specialty, specifically the Hebrew language. She enjoyed working in her position until May of 2011 when she was told that due to financial reasons her position would be eliminated in an effort to downsize.

According to the court filings, the teacher was promised that a new position would be created so she could remain on staff. But when it came time to meet just before her Aug. 31 termination date, the head of the school began hinting at concerns over teaching style. After her termination, the position that was allegedly being erased was instead filled with a much younger applicant.

The suit claims that the discrimination was not simply unique to the teacher's personal situation but that there was a pattern of questionable terminations. The suit named nine other former employees who experienced cutbacks in hours or complete termination without a reasonable basis. In all nine instances, the employee was at least 40 years of age or older and every single replacement was young and certainly not of Israeli origin.

Source: The Daily Journal, "Former teacher claims discrimination," Nov. 8, 2011