Intel Faces Age-Discrimination Claims
May 25 2018 - 12:35PM
Dow Jones News
By Georgia Wells
The federal watchdog for equal employment is investigating
claims that Intel Corp. targeted workers for layoffs based on their
age.
Nearly three years after Intel launched a series of layoffs that
cut more than 10,000 employees globally, the U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission's Seattle office is working to determine
whether the job cuts were discriminatory, according to a document
from the agency reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The issue of potential age discrimination is recurrent in the
tech industry, where the workforces at many firms skew younger and
the pace of change is often rapid.
Following the Intel layoffs, dozens of former employees
consulted with lawyers about whether they could sue, according to
lawyers who received calls from the employees. Some of those former
employees filed complaints with the EEOC, according to people
familiar with the matter.
In one subset of layoffs in May 2016, the median age of the
2,300 employees let go was 49 years old, seven years older than the
median age of their peer employees who remained, according to Intel
documents viewed by the Journal. Many of the layoffs in the U.S.
occurred in Oregon, where Intel is one of the largest
employers.
Intel said its layoffs were intended to "fuel Intel's evolution"
from a PC company to one that powers the cloud and connected
devices.
"Factors such as age, race, national origin, gender, immigration
status, or other personal demographics were not part of the process
when we made those decisions," a spokesman for Intel said in a
statement.
A spokeswoman for the EEOC said the agency isn't permitted to
confirm or deny the existence of investigations.
Layoffs of older workers, who tend to be better paid, aren't
exclusive to tech. But several tech firms have been sued in recent
years for alleged age discrimination, and Pro Publica reported
earlier this year that the EEOC is also looking into
age-discrimination complaints at International Business Machines
Corp. An IBM spokesman declined to comment.
Under federal employment law, people alleging age discrimination
by their employers must first file complaints with the EEOC. The
EEOC then investigates these complaints, and determines whether
there is sufficient evidence to settle the matter privately, or
help take the cases to court, sometimes as class-action suits.
"If someone files an individual charge, and it looks like it
implicates broader, systemic issues, then the EEOC can expand the
investigation to include the broader issue," said David Lopez,
former general counsel for the EEOC who now is a partner at law
firm Outten & Golden.
The document viewed by the Journal indicates the agency hasn't
yet determined whether to file a class-action suit against
Intel.
If the EEOC doesn't find sufficient evidence to file its own
case, the agency issues a letter to those who filed charges that
allows them to file civil cases.
--Ted Greenwald contributed to this article.
Write to Georgia Wells at Georgia.Wells@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 25, 2018 12:20 ET (16:20 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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