Age Discrimination

Age Discrimination

25 Oct 11

“Between 1 January 2002 and 31 July 2006 the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission received 1,235 enquiries and complaints relating to unlawful discrimination on the ground of age. Of those 1,235 matters, 524 related to the area of either employment or pre-employment.” (NEON, 2006). This statistic was from 2006. Today, age discrimination has increased and is continually rising. People are living longer and they are working longer. Most of these individuals are working longer because they want to but some are working longer because they have to because of the recession. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act protects the rights of workers age 40 and over. This act put a stop to employers blatantly discriminating against workers because of their age. The University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio was one of those employers that were found guilty of age discrimination.

Gloria Parks, 56 years old, was blamed and fired for a patient mix-up while her younger counterparts were never disciplined for their involvement in the incident. There were two patients named Charles Reed and both reported to the pre-admission testing department; their charts were mixed-up and they were being treated for one another issues. It was not Ms. Parks’ job to verify the patient’s identity. It was two of Ms. Parks’ younger counterparts and they both failed to verify Mr. Reeds’ identity. Ms. Parks drew blood and performed an EKG on the wrong Mr. Reed. Mr. Reed protested that he was not awaiting liver surgery. Ms. Parks’ realized she had the wrong patient and stop what she was doing and corrected the matter. Ms. Parks did not report the incident because the patient was not harmed and the matter was corrected before the major surgery was to take place. Well, Mr. Reed complained and Ms. Parks was fired and the hospital supported the firing of Ms. Parks. (Atassi, 2011) In this case, failing to perform a thorough investigation by management and...