It Took Seven Years But Over-40s Fired By HP Win $18 Million Settlement (theregister.com) 29
Brandon Vigliarolo reports via The Register: After over seven years of legal battles, a group of former HP employees who claim the venerable firm discriminated against older staff when culling jobs has won a $18 million settlement. Hewlett Packard's offshoots, HP and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) have agreed to cough up just over a day's combined profits for the last quarter to settle a class-action case brought by employees who were over 40 and got laid off when the company split in 2015. The group sued HP and HPE in 2016 claiming both the new entities and the old Hewlett Packard had unfairly targeted older employees for layoffs as far back as 2012.
Two classes were designated in the lawsuit -- 146 former staff accusing HP and HPE of age discrimination on US Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) grounds, and 212 accusing their former employer of the same based on California state labor laws. The settlement notice [PDF], which was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California in late September and preliminarily approved by a judge on Thursday, doesn't include any admission of guilt on HP or HPE's part -- quite the opposite, in fact. "Throughout the litigation, each Defendant has denied, and continues to deny, the allegations described above," lawyers for the plaintiffs wrote in the settlement notice. Nonetheless, the settlement notice was filed without opposition from HP and HPE. [...]
Judge Edward Davila determined the settlement was "fair, adequate and reasonable" yesterday, and will issue a final order later, a draft [PDF] of which was also filed with the court in September. If approved without changes, each of the 358 plaintiffs in the California case stand to earn $50,279 in gross individual recovery. Net of attorney's fees, costs and expenses, however, that total shrinks to a "minimum of $15,000," court filings indicate.
Two classes were designated in the lawsuit -- 146 former staff accusing HP and HPE of age discrimination on US Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) grounds, and 212 accusing their former employer of the same based on California state labor laws. The settlement notice [PDF], which was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California in late September and preliminarily approved by a judge on Thursday, doesn't include any admission of guilt on HP or HPE's part -- quite the opposite, in fact. "Throughout the litigation, each Defendant has denied, and continues to deny, the allegations described above," lawyers for the plaintiffs wrote in the settlement notice. Nonetheless, the settlement notice was filed without opposition from HP and HPE. [...]
Judge Edward Davila determined the settlement was "fair, adequate and reasonable" yesterday, and will issue a final order later, a draft [PDF] of which was also filed with the court in September. If approved without changes, each of the 358 plaintiffs in the California case stand to earn $50,279 in gross individual recovery. Net of attorney's fees, costs and expenses, however, that total shrinks to a "minimum of $15,000," court filings indicate.
In other words (Score:5, Insightful)
If approved without changes, each of the 358 plaintiffs in the California case stand to earn $50,279 in gross individual recovery. Net of attorney's fees, costs and expenses, however, that total shrinks to a "minimum of $15,000," court filings indicate.
A phyrric victory. Not only did you spend 7 years getting a pittance, but the companies don't even have to admit they did anything wrong.
And all it cost HP was a single day's profit.
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> And all it cost HP was a single day's profit
"We'd do it again in a heartbeat!"
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100%. Fines that dont account for wealth are pointless when dealing with major companies or affluent individuals. 18 million is nothing to a company like HP, they'll happily do the same again if they want to.
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Lots of the CxO types actually don't care if the company goes bust. As long as they get richer. That's why they are so eager to sack people.
If you're a sociopathic millionaire or billionaire, you going to prison is a bigger deterrent than your company being forced to pay huge fines. With the latter even if the company goes bust because of the fines you'd probably get a golden parachute/handshake.
But everyone has a 70-100+ year
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Correct, highly paid management; who's pay is rationalized by high responsibly, requires actual responsibility! How about they personally all lose 7 years of their salary? Since registered corporations are government defined entities, one could simply ban them from any corporate management for 7 years. They can be an employee or live off investments or work their own private business without the legal weight of incorporation (which makes you personally liable and that is why everybody wants to legally inc
Re: In other words (Score:2)
HP isnâ(TM)t exactly wealthy, the idiot that wrote that line doesnâ(TM)t know the difference between income, profits and revenue. HP (and to a lesser extent HPE) has been slipping since they split, many companies would love to pay percentage of their profits after a settlement, as that would mean the people suing would likely have to pay THEM.
Re: In other words (Score:2)
Fines should scale relative to worth.
Is there any western country that does this? The idea that someone speeding can either get a slap on the wrist, or miss next month's rent and be evicted, seems like unequal justice.
Most western countries have progressive taxes, why not progressive fines?
I mean shit, many municipalities consider fines a source of revenue rather than a form of punishment. It's in their best interests to have progressive fines
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Several European countries do that, I know of Switzerland and Finland, but there could be more.
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I gather some traffic violations in the UK are nominally, but still work out to be only less regressive than a flat fine.
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In Japan they have jail sentences for companies. Basically they have to cease operations for a certain number of days. Staff still get paid.
It hurts more than just a fine. Not only do they lose profit, their shipments/sales get delayed or lost, and business partners have to look for alternatives to cover the down-time.
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I think plaintiffs also get a coupon for 20% off MSRP any HP printer, laptop or desktop. :-)
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I'm surprised HP didn't give them a free printer when they laid them off, then they'd get home, try to use it, get frustrated and die of a heart attack. End of lawsuit worries.
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And all it cost HP was a single day's profit.
Nah, not really. In 7 years, HP should be able to use that $18 million dollars to make nearly that much back (based on long-term averages, the stock market doubles in roughly 7 years). By delaying for so long, HP has the same amount of money now that they would have had anyway, so it effectively cost them nothing.
And that's not even taking into account that HP probably saved more then $18 million by firing these people.
Pathetic (Score:4, Insightful)
Fired for age, and the result is net $15k compared to the likely lifetime earnings loss. And who is going to hire someone who not only isn't 'fresh', but who was fired, and also dared to sue their employer?
It probably should have been more like $1.5m each.
Re: Pathetic (Score:2)
On the other hand, they were working for HP, I donâ(TM)t think I would hire anyone that worked for HP in the past 2 decades, there hasnâ(TM)t been anyone competent there for a really long time.
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15k (Score:3)
Let me get this straight- so TWO THIRDS of the award will be eaten by expenses??? That seems really, really excessive.
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lawyer bill $350/hr
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I would expect that the California damages are higher than the US damages, and the lawyers are taking 1/3. Could also be linked to salary.
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You try winning a lawsuit against a megacorp on the cheap.
And lawyers win again !! (Score:2)
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Ideally lawsuits are settled outside of court and relative to the settlement it is not very expensive.
Well actually, the ideal is for people not to be pieces of shit and to act with integrity when dealing with one another. But that world is far away from the one I happen to live in.
now they're over 50 (Score:2)
And it's really hard to find a tech job when you're over 50 unless you were a manager at your previous job.
Title. (Score:2)