US sues AT&T for age discrimination

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The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued AT&T Inc on Thursday, accusing the nation's largest phone company of discriminating against workers over 40.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, the EEOC said Dallas-based AT&T had "no legitimate business or reason" for its nationwide policy not to rehire employees who had retired under various retirement and severance programs.

The EEOC said tens of thousands of retirees covered by the programs, including a Voluntary Retirement Incentive Program and an Enhanced Pension and Retirement Program, are harmed by the policy, which it said took effect in October 2006.

"From what AT&T has told us, there are in excess of 50,000 individuals subject to these plans," said Louis Graziano, an EEOC lawyer handling the case, in an interview. "At most, very few people under 40 would be affected."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090820/us_nm/us_att_eeoc_agediscrimination

I wonder when AT&T demands immunity.