To those folks who feel that age discrimination may have been an issue in the recent layoffs and are considering taking action, please be aware that there was at least one age discrimination lawsuit recently filed against Cisco in California prior to and independent of the layoffs, as well as multiple age discrimination claims filed with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing. It is quite possible that your beliefs are correct.
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Cisco has paid out wrongful termination due to age and other discriminatory acts. Was advised by legal team I would win just that cisco would expend any all resources to win and exhaust my $. Make it a PR campaign around your suit... they hate bad press
Cisco is laying off higher paid employees (read older employees) and hiring "early in career" to take their places at a lower wage. I've seen it happen many times in the last few years. I was recently told I didn't fit the profile for a position I believe I'm qualified for because I'm a "MAWG". I asked what that meant and they replied Middle Aged White Guy. Waiting for my turn to be laid off.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/07/business/dealbook/shown-the-door-older-workers-find-bias-hard-to-prove.html?ref=business
Cisco is notoriously famous for Age Discriminations. After 15 years of service I was Layed-off with package under older worker retirement act was offered , Initially I decided to file a lawsuit in 2014, but decided not to because my skill set are only with cisco networking and was informed by well wisher it would create problem getting another job at cisco partner /cisco shop when they checked for reference.
Later after 16 month I was hired by cisco via some other contractor ( not full time job offer) contract expired and was not renewed because of Obama medical act. that forced employer give them medical benefits after 2 yrs of service. Currently looking for other contract job. I have learnt at age 56 no one offer full time jobs. I missed many when HR ask you which year you graduated there goes my chance for getting F/T job.
Oh, I didn't know about this. Anybody has a link or reference to it? I want to join.
I think that they have to suspend the expiration date of the severance agreements if you join a class action. Frankly, I think it's something to look at. I wonder if anything has been filed in Texas.
has anyone organized anything ?
Move all this jobs to India and Cisco can stay free from all legal hassles. It really tough to do business in US with so many legal hassles and tough regulation over layoffs like fat severance packages, retirement benefits, social security . In India, Nobody questions cisco about layoffs. Hire and fire at will in India. It's lot cheaper and great talent than this deadwood who are not flexible with changing times in US.
it resonates " people can't afford to sacrifice their severance to take a chance on law suit. I would have extremely strong case, but not going to take the risk."
Progress comes slowly but it is happening. Note the class action lawsuit filed by former HP employees against HP just last month. It references comments made by Meg Whitman as evidence of HP's intent to push older employees out and replace them with younger employees.
Recent layoff...... look back 10 years and let's talk about it systematically. I was once in a CDO management meeting where the then EVP said "We all need to be concerned about how old our engineering population is getting." Yikes!
It was clearly age discrimination! However, people can't afford to sacrifice their severance to take a chance on law suit. I would have extremely strong case, but not going to take the risk.