Burden of Proof in Age Discrimination Suits Reaches the U.S. Supreme Court
The U.S. Supreme Court will address the significant question of whether an employer in an age discrimination suit has the burden of proving that reasonable factors exist that might explain the disparate impact that a business decision has on a group of older employees, or if the burden rests with the employees.
In a case brought by two dozen workers at Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory in upstate New York, 31 employees were terminated using a set of guidelines to evaluate the workers’ skills as well as their amenability to retraining. Thirty of the 31 terminated employees were over the age of 40, the age at which the protections of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) apply. The employees won after a jury trial, but the judgment was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
The Age Discrimination in Employment Act is the law under which the suit was initially brought and it references the reasonable factor test but does not indicate where the burden rests. It would make sense that if the employer wanted to use the reasonable factor concept as a shield, the burden should rightfully rest with them.
