Recently, the Age Diversity Forum has been concentrating on the benefits of having an age-diverse workforce. One of the main benefits we’ve highlighted is compliance with the 2010 Equality Act. In our editorial, one of the cases we discussed was the one of Superdry PLC and the fallout of that.

“75% of professionals who experienced age bias, expressed it occurred during the job search”

In the past few months, Eli Lilly, the American pharmaceutical company has also had to settle a few lawsuits. The first lawsuit agreed just two months ago with a payment of $2.4 million with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. This resulted from accusations that the company intentionally under-hired older candidates between 2017 and 2021. The senior vice president had announced goals for early career hiring (recruiting those who have 0-5 years of professional experience). They then changed their hiring preferences and intentionally under-hired older candidates in favour of less-qualified younger candidates.

In this most recent case, they have settled the case for an undisclosed amount. A senior sales rep had come forward and stated that the company promoted younger workers over the older ones – implying that they have not changed. Whilst this hasn’t been made public, the previous settlement prevents Eli Lilly from rejecting applicants based on age. It also must update its hiring policies and provide yearly training to hiring managers.

A 2021 WerkLabs survey found that 75% of professionals who experienced age bias, expressed it occurred during the job search. this is nearly 25% higher than the 53% of professionals who said it occurred in the workplace. However, this report also stated that the Healthcare and Pharma sector experienced some of the lowest instances of ageism. An interesting fact considering that it was a pharmaceutical company that had back-to-back lawsuits.

This all comes about during a rise in the company’s stock price: a 45% increase in the year. This brings up the question of why there hasn’t been more damage to the company’s reputation, especially considering that it is two settlements, very close together in time frame. What can be done to bring awareness of the legal consequences of age discrimination? Why don’t shareholders take age discrimination as seriously as other forms of discrimination?

Sonya Knight | ADF Comms Team

Read our previous compliance editorial here

To respond and/or for more information, please contact the ADF Comms Team at: [email protected]