What’s one thing that can turn a justified termination into a costly lawsuit?
Answer: stray remarks by a supervisor. Take this recent example:
An employee brought his prescription medication into work. Allegedly he offered to give or sell the so-called “happy pills” to some of his co-workers. After finding out and investigating, the company fired him.
He denied handing out the drugs and sued, claiming his age was the real reason he was fired. After failing to get the case thrown out, the company agreed to pay a $210,000 settlement.
Why’d the company lose? According to the employee, his supervisor had told him he might be “too old to handle this job” and “carried too much baggage.”
The comments were enough evidence for the judge to conclude that the investigation might have been pretext for age discrimination.
Cite: Tower v. City of Denton
