AGE

“I made it earlier because of watching these people go through these horrendous experiences of being demeaned and degraded and let go and lied to about the reasons,” said Moon, a plaintiff in the suit.

In a settlement signed last month, Ohio State agreed to pay Moon and Taaffe back pay, plus lump-sum payments, totaling about $440,000 between the two. The university also will pay $325,000 to cover legal costs.

Within a year of the settlement, Ohio State also must initiate a review of its policies for preventing and investigating discrimination to determine whether changes are required.

“We’re glad at some of the policy changes that Ohio State might make, directly as a result of our experience for those couple of years in the program,” Taaffe said.

The settlement has not yet been formally approved by a judge in federal court. The discrimination complaints that Taaffe and Moon filed with the U.S. Equal Opportunity Commission in 2014 and 2015 also remain pending.

Moon, who was 64 when the complaint was filed in 2015, had worked as an ESL instructor for 31 years at the university. Taaffe, who was 59 Julianne Taaffe, left, and Kathy Moon hold a small banner that Moon had made that bears the names of colleagues in the English as a Second Language Department at Ohio State who they say also faced discrimination because of their age. at the time, had worked for more than 20 years. After Taaffe, Moon and other older full-time instructors were told they would be classified as lecturers and cut back to four-month contracts, the two women retired in late 2014. Ohio State eventually offered the women their jobs back, and they returned to the department late last year as their lawsuit proceeded.

Leading up to that point, an ESL director was quoted in the lawsuit as saying he wanted to modernize the ESL program by bringing in younger talent and equated working with older teachers to “herding hippos,” among other insults. After that director left the university for another job, new ESL Director Robert Eckhart referred to older workers as “millstones around his neck” and “dead wood.” Emails between Eckhart and Ohio State officials and human resources administrators describe reorganization efforts to encourage older workers

to leave or retire.

Taaffe complained of discriminatory practices to university officials, who found no discrimination. When she and Moon wrote to Ohio State President Michael V. Drake and other university officials with concerns that their discrimination investigation sidestepped or ignored key allegations, they never received a response.

“I always had the sense for that period of time, and it went on for several years, of not being heard, and the sense that nobody’s paying attention, after repeated appeals for help,” Taaffe said. “The effect that had on me was, ‘Maybe I’m crazy.’”

That self-doubt was what ultimately led Taaffe to seek legal counsel.

Ohio State officials have said they do not believe the university acted unlawfully in any way, but they settled in the interest of resolving the matter. None of the officials named in the lawsuit has been disciplined or reprimanded as a result of the case, said Ohio State spokesman Chris Davey.

In November, the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alerted Taaffe and Moon that it had found reasonable cause to believe that they and others in the ESL department had been discriminated against in violation of the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967.

The investigation revealed that a class of older employees in the ESL department “were subjected to intentional age discrimination and were ultimately forced to choose between resignation/retirement or being reclassified into less desirable positions,” according to the EEOC.

“The evidence suggests several (Ohio State) officials were aware and supported the intent to discriminate against a class of older employees within the ESL Department because of their age,” the EEOC notice said.

Ohio State is now in the midst of the EEOC’s conciliation process, an informal and confidential process in which the parties in a complaint must agree to a resolution. Should conciliation fail, the EEOC could sue.

Having older workers like Moon and Taaffe come forward when they feel they are being discriminated against is “the most important possible thing” when dealing with age discrimination cases, said Dara Smith, an attorney with the AARP Foundation, who joined The Gittes Law Group, a Columbus firm which specializes in employment discrimination and harassment matters, as co-counsel.

“They are incredibly brave, and the fact that they were willing to make sure that they didn’t rest until there was some policy change that would protect other people, that’s exactly the kind of people that we want to work with,” Smith said.

Ohio State also agreed to create a “secondlook” process for age-bias complaints in the College of Education and Human Ecology. It will give employees alleging discrimination an opportunity to raise issues with the outcome of the university’s investigation. The settlement also requires two discrimination and workplace investigation training sessions for certain human resources staff members and managers in the College of Education and Human Ecology.

Taaffe and Moon said they hope in the end that the policy changes brought about by their case can benefit other older workers, too.

“We thought for a long time that we really wanted our situation in this experience to help many people, not just us,” Moon said. “We really hope that the outcome is positive for a lot of people.” RED CROSS Blood drives are open today at: Carriage Place Blood Donation Center, 4820 Sawmill Road, 12:15 p.m.7:30 p.m. CheckSmart, 6805 Bobcat Way, Room 212, Dublin, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Leo C. Yassenoff Jewish Community Center, 1125 College Ave., 12:30 p.m.6:30 p.m. Mount Carmel Grove City, 5300 North Meadows Drive, Grove City, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. OSU Biomedical Research Tower, 460 W. 12th Ave., 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Polaris Blood Donation Center, 1327 Cameron Ave., Lewis Center, 12:15 p.m.-6:45 p.m. Stoneridge Blood Donation Center, 337 Stoneridge Lane, Gahanna, 12:15 p.m.-7:30 p.m.