Team Georgia Connection

Employer bias or ex-employee’s negligence?

When the economy finally improves, companies will begin to hire workers again. Companies will also need to consider whether or not they plan to rehire employees who were terminated. One company became involved in a court battle dealing with this very topic.

The case in a nutshell

A company layed off an employee due to overstaffing in her department. HR offered her transfers to other positions within the company, but she declined. She, however, inquired about other job openings for which she was not qualified.

When a job opened for which the former employee was qualified, the HR manager called her and discussed the position. The employee indicated that she was interested to the manager, but she claimed that she did not receive any further information about the offer.

A few weeks later, the former employee discovered that an employee 30 years her junior was hired for the position. Consequently, she sued the company on the grounds of age discrimination.

He said, she said

The employee argued that she was told the job was hers and that she was never contacted again. The company argued that the ball was in the former employee’s court. The HR manager stated that the former employee probably would have been given the job, if she had completed and application. Since she did not submit an application, she was never officially considered for the job.

Here comes the judge

The judge saw previous offers that the company had made to the former employee. In viewing these offers, they appeared to be straight forward and without a need for applications or interviews. Since this inconsistency looked suspect to the judge, the company motion to dismiss was denied.

This was not good news to the company. This decision will probably result in hefty settlement or a long, costly trial.

Cite: Owens v. Wellmont, Inc.

Source:  She never applied — how can she sue for hiring bias?by Sam Narisi, Posted in: Law, Special Report