IBM accused of terminating older employees and replacing them with younger workers
Hundreds of former IBM employees have come forward accusing the tech giant of terminating them on the basis of their age. These former employees allege that IBM laid them off as part of a deliberate company-wide strategy to hire younger employees to replace them.
If you’re a current or past IBM employee who believes you may have been treated differently because of your age while at IBM, we may be able to help. Contact our employment attorneys for a confidential consultation to discuss your options.
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IBM Faces Multiple Age Discrimination Lawsuits
Since 2018, IBM has been hit with a number of lawsuits claiming that the company has intentionally and illegally replaced older employees with younger workers. In September 2020, former IBM employees filed a complaint in a Texas federal court alleging that IBM violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and other state laws, by concocting a “fire-and-hire” scheme to make IBM’s workforce younger. According to the complaint, IBM executives implemented rolling layoffs that targeted older employees, and even gave older workers fake negative performance reviews to justify their terminations.
In another similar lawsuit filed in a Texas district court, a man who had worked for IBM for 24 years claimed that he was terminated as part of a workforce reduction strategy that targeted older employees. In this case, a judge ordered IBM to produce high-level documents and correspondences between IBM senior executives, which purportedly revealed details of the company’s complex plan to rid the company of older employees.
EEOC Investigation Uncovers Age Discrimination at IBM
As reported by Techwire, a multi-year long U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) investigation analysis found that between 2013 and 2018, 85.85% of IBM employees considered for layoff were “older workers,” defined by age-bias laws as over 40 years old. The investigation also uncovered internal messages between IBM’s highest-ranking executives, directing managers to employ an aggressive approach of reducing older workers to make room for younger hires.
Experience age discrimination while working for IBM?
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