OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act

Floor Speech

Date: Jan. 15, 2020
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Senior Citizens Employment and Affirmative Action

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Chairman, I thank Chairman Scott for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, today, by supporting the bipartisan Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act, we can protect the civil rights of older workers who are striving to provide for themselves and their families.

According to recent data from the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the percentage of retirement-age Americans in the labor force has doubled since 1985. Unfortunately, age discrimination in the workplace remains disturbingly pervasive. According to the AARP, three in five workers over the age of 45 reported seeing or experiencing age discrimination on the job. Americans are living and working longer, and we must do all we can to protect them from discrimination.

My home State of Oregon has one of the most rapidly aging populations in this country. I have heard from workers, many in the technology industry, who believe they have been dismissed or denied employment because of their age. My office has helped older workers who have filed age discrimination complaints at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but the burden and the outcomes are very uncertain.

In 1967 Congress passed the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, or ADEA, to prohibit age discrimination in the workplace and to promote the employment of older workers. Then in 2009 the Supreme Court in the Gross case changed the burden of proof for workers and made it much harder for workers to prove age discrimination. This bipartisan bill simply returns the burden of proof to what it was for decades before the Gross case.

I joined Chairman Scott and Congressman Sensenbrenner in reintroducing the bipartisan Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act to amend the ADEA and our other core civil rights laws: the anti-retaliation provision of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. We need to make our laws clear. Unlawful discrimination in the workplace is unacceptable.

Mr. Chairman, I thank Chairman Scott and Congressman Sensenbrenner for their work on this important issue, and I urge all of my colleagues to support this bill.

Ms. FOXX of North Carolina. Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Walberg).

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT


Source
arrow_upward