PHILADELPHIA — A Pennsylvania country club has agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by the federal government alleging the establishment subjected a groundskeeper to seasonal layoffs and then fired him because of his age.
According to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), a 59-year old groundskeeper at the Llanerch Country Club in Havertown was laid off instead of his younger coworkers for the winter season. The groundskeeper was later allegedly told by the country club that he would not be rehired in the spring because the club was "looking to take the staff in a younger direction."
The club then hired nine, significantly younger groundskeepers, the EEOC said. The EEOC alleged in its lawsuit filed in U.S District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania that Llanerch violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).
"The contributions of workers age 40 and older are central to the vitality of our national economy and our local economy here in eastern Pennsylvania," EEOC Philadelphia District Office regional attorney Debra Lawrence said in a statement. "The Age Discrimination in Employment Act was designed to protect those workers' rights and their vast contributions to the American workplace, and the EEOC will continue its efforts to safeguard those rights and contributions."
The settlement includes Llanerch paying $30,000 in monetary relief to the former groundskeeper and will provide training to its managers regarding age discrimination, according to the EEOC.