IBM Settles Age Discrimination Lawsuit

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With internal emails threatening to go public, IBM still wants to buy out an age discrimination lawsuit, even though it previously claimed it did not systematically fire older employees.

Earlier this month, IBM settled with Eugene Schenfeld, a research scientist at IBM until he was fired several years ago. He then went to court because he would have been fired because of his age. Detail: Schenfeld’s division was led by Arvind Krishna, who is now CEO of IBM.

Several other ex-employees did the same after the websites ProPublica and Mother Jones revealed in 2020 that IBM was doing an internal rejuvenation by replacing older employees with younger ones.

IBM has always maintained that this is not the case, but in early June the court ruled that emails between then CEO Ginny Rometty and then HR chief Diane Gherson could be used as evidence. It may state that such a policy did apply. But that remains an open secret because, despite the earlier denial of the practice, IBM is now willing to settle with Schenfeld for an undisclosed amount.

There are other similar cases in other US states involving age discrimination at IBM. They may also now be settled outside the courtroom.