Country Club to Pay $30K to Settle Age Discrimination Lawsuit

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) announced that Llanerch Country Club of Havertown, Pennsylvania, has agreed to pay $30,000 in monetary relief and furnish significant equitable relief to settle an age discrimination lawsuit.

The EEOC says that in January 2013, the club began treating its oldest groundskeeper differently by laying him off for the winter season. Then, in December 2016, the club told the groundskeeper, who was then 59 years old, that he would be temporarily laid off. However, in the spring of 2017, the club told the workers that he would not be recalled or rehired, as the club was “looking to take the staff in a younger direction.”

Less than three weeks later, the club hired nine other groundskeepers who were significantly younger, the EEOC lawsuit charges.

In addition to paying $30,000 in monetary relief to the groundskeeper, the club is enjoined from engaging in age discrimination or retaliation. The club has agreed to train its managers on age discrimination, post a notice of employee rights under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, which protects individuals age 40 and older from employment discrimination, and report any future complaints of age discrimination and retaliation to the EEOC.

“The contributions of workers age 40 and older and central to the vitality of our national economy and our local economy here in Eastern Pennsylvania,” said EEOC Regional Attorney Debra Lawrence of the agency’s Philadelphia District Office. “The Age Discrimination in Employment Act was designed to protect those workers’ rights and their vast contributions to the American workplace, and the EEOC will continue its efforts to safeguard those rights and contributions.”

EEOC Philadelphia District Director Jamie Williamson added: “We appreciate Llanerch Country Club working with us to resolve this case amicably and expeditiously.”