According to the Philippine News, Kmart Corporation will pay $120,000 and furnish other relief to settle an age harassment, constructive discharge and retaliation lawsuit filed by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the agency announced on March 24. The EEOC had charged that Kmart discriminated against a 70-year-old pharmacist at a Honolulu store. According to the EEOC’s suit, over the course of four years, a pharmacy manager openly professed on several occasions that the pharmacist was “too old,” “should just retire,” and was “greedy” for continuing to work at age 70. The manager also purposely scheduled her to work on Sundays – knowing that she attended church those days – to encourage her to quit, according to the EEOC. The agency further contended that the victim complained to a district manager, general manager and human resources manager regarding the age-based harassment, to no avail. Finally, the EEOC said, she had to quit to escape the mistreatment. In June 2009, the EEOC filed its lawsuit in U.S. District Court, claiming that Kmart failed to take remedial action, which forced the pharmacist to resign. The EEOC argued that the harassment and Kmart’s failure to adequately address it were in direct violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA).
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