Everyone knows it’s against the law to discriminate in hiring. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, I’m saying it’s against the law. An employer can’t refuse to give someone a job because of race, creed, ethnicity or age . . . and probably lots of other reasons I’m not aware of. An agency I worked for once included in the hiring policy the promise to not discriminate against anyone for their “political stance during the Viet Nam Era.” I’m not sure that would be an issue nowadays, unless someone is running for public office.
But, I noticed a small article this week on the AARP Magazine website (www.aarpmagazine.org) regarding a court victory against age discrimination. This is a direct quote from that website:
A major legal victory, won by AARP Foundation attorneys and television writers, may affect age-discrimination cases for years to come. For nearly a decade, a group of 165 writers ages 50 and up – with the support of the AARP Foundation litigation department – has argued in court that TV studios conspired to shut out older writers via a so-called “graylist.” Now, in a landmark settlement, the studios have agreed to pay $70 million in damages to thousands of writers.
“The network told me I didn’t know how to write for young people,” says Tracy Keenan Wynn, 65, who won an Emmy for 1974’s The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. “Shakespeare wasn’t 15 when he wrote Romeo and Juliet. Writers get better with age.”