Suit says IBM targeted older workers for cuts

IBM's hiring of recent young college graduates while firing older workers violates federal and state laws barring age discrimination, a Wappingers Falls ex-IBMer alleges in a federal lawsuit.

The company denies it. "The allegations are baseless and IBM will vigorously defend its hiring practices," said spokesman Douglas Shelton in an email.

The case was begun in federal court by John McCormack as lead plaintiff, joined by two Florida-based ex-IBMers. It seeks class-action status, which, if granted, could cover hundreds and perhaps thousands of older IBMers whose jobs were terminated by the company.

IBM had a campaign of job advertisements in late 2013 calling for applicants with graduations in 2010 or later. That figures in the suit.

"This is a case of age discrimination against IBM based upon notorious and open practices which disfavor older workers and favor, explicitly, younger members of the labor market," their attorney, Michael Sussman of Goshen, argues in the complaint.

McCormack, 46, worked at IBM's semiconductor complex in East Fishkill until a large-scale downsizing hit him in December 2013. IBM told 697 Dutchess County-based employees in June that the cuts were coming. For several months, McCormack applied for at least 15 internal IBM postings, the suit says.

He was denied in each case.

"IBM managers and supervisors told Mr. McCormack that these positions had been targeted for young persons who had graduated college in 2012 or 2013," Sussman said in the suit.

But McCormack actually was a recent graduate himself, in 2012, despite his age. This changed nothing, though he "had the qualifications and technical skills to successfully fill many of these positions, IBM uniformly rejected McCormack for these positions without particularized consideration on the basis of his age," the suit contends.

Sussman said managers told McCormack that their hands were tied by corporate policy.

McCormack and two other ex-IBMers independently sought him out, said Sussman, whose specialties include civil rights litigation. The others were Mark Lingl, 58, and Ron Shelton, 49, both of Florida. Sussman put the three together into one suit because they had the same basic issue. Shelton is not related to the IBM spokesman, Sussman said.

Shelton was terminated in July 2013, and was not offered a chance to compete for open positions in IBM, the suit said. Both Shelton and Lingl were told by IBM that it was cutting its work force and that they were casualties of that reduction in force and that IBM "had no other work opportunities for them."

To get severance payouts, the two signed releases freeing IBM from liability for age discrimination. But Sussman said that if had they known of the favoritism being offered young college graduates, they would not have signed. He alleged that IBM's releases were "secured in bad faith and as part of practice which explicitly discriminated against current employees on the basis of age" and that they were part of a scheme to rid IBM of "older workers."

IBM's Shelton said, "IBM's long-standing commitment to workforce diversity recognizes the contributions that all individuals make to IBM's success, regardless of age. At any given time, IBM has thousands of open positions in the U.S., many of them are entry level positions in our business' strategic growth areas."

"While IBM actively recruits top college graduates for such positions, and is committed to its college recruitment programs, the majority of IBM hiring is of experienced professionals," he said. "Indeed, the facts alleged in plaintiffs' complaint contradict the very premise of age discrimination and are consistent with IBM's practice of hiring experienced professionals. Specifically, the plaintiffs were all hired as experienced professionals in their 30s, 40s or 50s."

In September 2013, the Poughkeepsie Journal found and reported on several IBM job postings that clearly limited the recruitment to recent college graduates. Some said in capital letters, "All applicants must have graduation dates of January 2010 or later. Then, the Burlington (Vermont) Free Press quoted Douglas Shelton, "It was a thoughtless mistake."

Sussman doesn't think so. He argues it was a "corporate policy" reflecting one to "discriminate against older workers and to exclude them from consideration from a whole range of jobs for which many would qualify."

Twitter: @craigwolfPJ