Older workers with a disability are too frequently illegally discriminated against in employment. This happens due to a two-fold prejudice: ageism coupled with ableism. Ableism is a set of values or beliefs that devalue and discriminate against persons with disabilities based on the belief that persons without disabilities are more capable and valuable than persons with disabilities. Ageism is a predisposition and misconception that older employees are not as productive and possess less capability to take on new tasks or acquire new skills than their younger counterparts.
If you think you are being pushed out of your job because of your age and/or disability, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation. I have represented public and private employees who were pushed out of jobs because of their disability and age and was successful in recovering financial compensation for their emotional pain and suffering and moneys for past lost wages and projected future lost wages.
Ageism: Older workers with a disability may be the first to be let go in a downsizing. Companies may resist providing the same training, seminars, etc., to older, disabled workers that they offer to others because of their warped predisposition favoring younger workers without disabilities. This prevents the older workers with disabilities from advancing, or even remaining employed, when they are denied the training they need to succeed.
Ableism: If you are an older disabled worker who needs a reasonable accommodation for your disability to allow you to keep working, your employer has a duty to provide such accommodation to you. To learn about the steps you are required to take when asking your employer to provide you with an accommodation for your disability, you should read, NJ Employment Disability Attorney, Disabled Employees Not Accommodated and Illegally Terminated.
The bias of ableism causes employers to believe that persons with disabilities will be unable to take on and advance in complex tasks and responsibilities because of perceived limitations which have no basis in fact. This blanket intolerance towards persons with disabilities may be associated with disability in general or with specific chronic health condition stereotypes such as heart disease or rheumatoid arthritis. You may read more about discrimination against workers with heart disease in NJ Disability Attorney, Employers Discriminate Against Top Tier Executive Employees with Heart Disease.
Shocking Statistics Comparing Workers With/Without Disabilities
Unemployment Statistics: In 2023, the unemployment rate for people with a disability is about twice the rate of those without a disability: 7.2 percent unemployment rate for for those with a disability compared to 3.5 percent for those who do not have a disability according to Federal Government Statistics.
Part-time Work Statistics: The disparity between non-disabled workers and disabled workers is alarming. Workers with a disability in 2023, were almost twice as likely to be employed part-time than those with no disability. About 16 percent of workers without a disability worked part time, compared to 29 percent of workers with a disability. More significantly, some of the workers with disabilities reported they were working part time not by their own choice but because they were unable to obtain a full-time job or their employer slashed their hours.
This disparity in unemployment statistics and part-time work statistics is largely due to disability bias, the employer’s perception that workers with disabilities are unable to be as productive as those without disabilities. Workers with disabilities may be the first to be let go in an RIF (Reduction in Force). Due to an ableism bias, employers may hesitate to promote workers with disabilities or provide them with the same opportunities based on stereotypes and perceived limitations which have no basis in fact. These misconceptions serve as an exploitive justification for Disability Discrimination in employment practices.
Supervisors May Meet Little Resistance from Superiors When Recommending the Termination of an Older Employee.
The bias inherent in ageism is a bigotry that so permeates the culture, that supervisors may meet little resistance from their superiors if they recommend terminating an older employee. Devious and unethical employers are becoming savvier. Concerned about a terminated employee subsequently filing an age discrimination against them, an unscrupulous employer may set in motion, a paper trail in the employee’s personnel file before the employee is terminated, in order to devise a bogus business justification for terminating the older worker.
Unscrupulous Employers Devise Bogus Evaluations of an Employee’s Work- A long-term employee who previously received good employee performance evaluations may start receiving poor evaluations. The performance evaluation process is unfair when it is given based on the evaluator’s ulterior motive or bias. This is illegal Age Discrimination when it related to a discriminatory or retaliatory purpose. An employee can also be given a negative review when the employer has made the decision to terminate an employee but needs a reason. These motives can usually be inferred from the timing or the circumstances surrounding the review. I regularly assist clients who have been given negative performance reviews that they believe were issued for an illegal reason. To read further on how unscrupulous employers devise bogus evaluations, you may read, Employee Performance Evaluations.
Don’t Sit on Your Rights
I have represented public and private older employees who were pushed out of jobs because of their age and disability and was successful in recovering financial compensation for their emotional pain and suffering and moneys for lost wages, both for past lost wages and projected future lost wages. If you think you are being pushed out of your job because of your age and/or disability, you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation. I accept discrimination and whistleblower cases from all over New Jersey and have locations in Southern, Central and Northern NJ to meet with clients.
If You Quit Your Job, You May Lose Right to Prevail in a Lawsuit
In many instances of discrimination, if you quit your job, you may lose right to prevail in a lawsuit unless you first take certain legally required measures to preserve your job while you are still employed. If you are thinking of handing in a resignation letter, or think you will be fired (or have already been terminated), you should contact this office immediately for a free consultation to discuss your options.
Hope A. Lang, Attorney at Law represents workers throughout the entire state, including Hackensack, Jersey City, Newark, Irvington, Orange, East Orange, Trenton, Paterson, Montclair, Elizabeth, North Brunswick, Cherry Hill, Vineland, Union, Plainfield, Hamilton Township, Lakewood, Edison, Parsippany-Troy Hills, Franklin, Lakewood, and every NJ County, including Bergen, Hudson, Middlesex, Essex, Monmouth, Somerset, Ocean, Union, Camden, Passaic, Morris, Gloucester, Atlantic, Burlington, Camden Counties.