For two years, Maurice Anscombe, 58, has survived on odd jobs. The Baltimore, Maryland resident drives for Uber. Mr. Anscombe never found stable employment after his dismissal from the Verizon telecommunications group. In the heyday, he made a good living. With overtime, this technician pocketed 90,000 dollars (81,547 euros) per year. Today much less. And yet, he says, "I am very adaptable, I learn quickly, I arrive on time and I stay until the job is done."
But future employers don't even bother to look at his CV. On average three times a week, Mr. Anscombe applies for a new position. In vain. No one answers him. He is considered too old. So, on the advice of his CWA (Communications Workers of America) union, he joined two other former call center workers, also unemployed, and all together they filed a complaint against Facebook, Cox Communications, Amazon, T Mobile… for age discrimination.
Differentiation normally prohibited by law, as well as discrimination based on race, sex, membership in the LGBT community (lesbians, gays, bi and trans) or even disability. These large companies are accused of having placed recruitment classifieds on Facebook, LinkedIn and other platforms on the Net, automatically excluding certain age groups, those over 50. Facebook algorithms make it easy to target the millennial generation.
Mr. Anscombe's story is not unique. His lawyer, Peter Romer-Friedman, of Outten & Golden, hopes to obtain the status of a collective complaint for this case and join the cause of millions of alumni.
The law protects badly
Despite the fact that the United States is experiencing an exceptional situation of full employment – the unemployment rate, which has fallen below 4%, continues to fall -, men over 50 and women in their forties have struggled to keep or to find good positions. The Urban Institute think tank and the journalistic investigation NGO Propublica have been tracking the professional development of 20,000 people, aged 50 in 1992, for several years. Result: 28% were thanked at least once, 15% saw their working conditions deteriorate and 13% were pushed towards early retirement.
