According to Public Justice, a federal court in Boston recently delivered an important victory for workers in Michael Rumsey v. IBM, ruling that IBM violated federal law when it tried to shorten the time workers had to sue the company for age discrimination.
Judge Angel Kelley of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts held that the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) provides a substantive right that cannot be shortened by contract. This means IBM could not use fine print in its separation agreements to take away workers’ ability to pursue justice.
The case stems from IBM’s large-scale layoffs beginning in 2016, which targeted roughly 20,000 older employees. Internal emails revealed during the EEOC’s investigation showed top executives referring to older workers as “dinobabies” and discussing the need to make them an “extinct species.” These discriminatory practices led to years of legal battles for the affected employees.
When Mr. Rumsey and others filed claims in arbitration, IBM argued that their cases were filed too late under its self-imposed deadline. Judge Kelley rejected that argument, affirming that the ADEA’s statute of limitations cannot be overridden by corporate contracts. This decision now allows Rumsey and others to have their claims heard on the merits after nearly a decade of fighting for justice.
“This is a win for workers,” said Shelby Leighton of Public Justice, who represents Mr. Rumsey. “This decision affirms that companies like IBM cannot use opaque fine print in contracts to deny workers their day in court.”
Standing Up for Justice
We deeply appreciate the work of Public Justice and their co-counsel, Johnson & Webbert, LLP; Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll; Gibbs Mura; and Solidarity Law, for their dedication to protecting workers’ rights and holding corporations accountable.
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