AARP Bulletin - October 2009

; Your AARP The Law
By Emily Sachar

; The issue: Must age discrimination be held to a higher standard of evidence than other bias?

Jack Gross won $46,945 when a
federal court jury agreed he’d been
a victim of age discrimination.
But Gross will never see it. In
fact, he’s spent $30,000 of his own
funds in a losing battle with his
of his former responsibilities to a
newly created position: claims ad-
ministration manager. A woman in
her 40s got that job, and although
both she and Gross received the
same compensation, he consid-
ered his new job a demotion.
He filed suit, claiming that
the reassignment violated
the 1967 Age Discrimination
in Employment Act. FBL ar-
gued that the reassignment
was part of a corporate re-
structuring.

Jack Gross lost his job and $46,945.

DANN Y WILCOX FRAZIER/REDUX

employer, FBL Financial Services,
a Des Moines, Iowa, life insurance
and financial services marketing
firm. In June the U.S. Supreme
Court threw out the verdict, in a
5-4 decision that AARP attorneys
say could undermine the ability
of older workers to pursue age
discrimination cases.
“I was personally disappointed
… by what FBL did to me,” Gross
said recently. “There is no doubt
that they treated me as they did
because of my age.”
In 2003, after 28 years of regular
promotions and pay raises at FBL,
Gross, then 54, was reassigned
from the position of claims admin-
istration director to claims project
coordinator. FBL transferred many
; What it means to you: You
need clear proof if you believe
you have been the victim of age
discrimination at work. Consult
your union or a labor lawyer fa-
miliar with the Gross case. ;