Age Discrimination, Harrassment to force resignation
I was hired 7 years ago as Chief Engineer of a large hotel. The position has been management (supervision, delegation, discretionary judgement,etc). My new general manager of 3 weeks told me he wanted my resignation, as he wanted 'fresh eyes'. He is mid-30's, I am 58. I refused to resign, thinking he'd just fire me. He asked why I would not prefer to resign with a clean slate, rather than be released with a blemish on my record. I told him that, as I had no blemish, I saw no reason to resign. He wrote me up, instead of firing me, on some very minor things he managed to search out on the property, putting me on a 30-day plan, working 11 hours per day, 6 days per week, when I had worked 5days @ 9 hours per day for 7 years. He also instructed that I do the work myself, as well as supervising my crew. As I am salaried, working 66 hours per week reduces my pay to that of my subordinates, as I do not receive overtime pay. Is there any light at the end of this tunnel from a legal standpoint?
1 answer | asked Jun 20, 2001 3:33 PM [EST] | applies to Texas
Answers (1)
Your subject line indicates that you believe that your general manager may be discriminating against you because of your age. If so, that is against the law and yes there would be a light at the end of the tunnel. You will, however, need to prove that his harassment and request for your resignation is because of your age. That's hard to do, but you're in a great situation still to gather evidence since you're still there. See if you can get him to say something to this effect. It's weird that he is harassing you in order to get you to resign because more likely than not you are an employee at will and therefore can be fired for any reason, or none at all. I say hang in there, but you may want to establish a relationship with a lawyer now to advise you on a more frequent basis. Rod Tanner is a great employment lawyer in Fort Worth. Depending on your precise situation, he may advise that you file a charge of discrimination with the EEOC, but please don't make that decision until you've spoken with Rod or some other attorney who knows employment law, as he does, inside out.
posted by Margaret A. Harris | Jun 20, 2001 6:52 PM [EST]
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