IBM found violating age discrimination laws

Massive layoffs often take people by surprise. But when we talk of layoffs at International Business Machines (IBM), they are not new. IBM has been working aggressively in transforming its business strategies to suit the new industry demands.

For years, the tech giant has been reshaping its manpower by downsizing the employees in some areas and bringing in new talent in return. But till date, IBM has never given an exact number of how many employees were being shown the door.

However, a latest joint report by Mother Jones and ProPublica, has thrown some light on the company’s not-so-secret layoffs. The investigation claims that the dominant tech giant may have violated the age discrimination law during its hiring – firing process.

On scanning the company’s legal filings, various public records as well as internal documents, it was seen that in the last five years, IBM swung the axe on over 20,000 U.S. employees – almost 60% – of age 40 and above. The joint report also cites that IBM pushed for alternates like resignations and firing to avoid it being clubbed with layoffs.

In the last five years, IBM swung the axe on over 20,000 U.S. employees – almost 60% – of age 40 and above

As the company worked towards embracing social media, cloud-based services, and data analytics, it was noticed that the management preferred younger millennials. The company even hired back the axed employees as contract workers for less pay. IBM fired the employees as an effort to move jobs to other countries and their outdated skills were also cited for the job cuts.

Since the 1950s, when the Age Discrimination in Employment Act was passed, such discrimination on the basis of age has been illegal, but sadly it is still being practiced by several companies. However, IBM has denied these allegations.