Lawsuit claims HP practiced age bias

Plaintiffs cite written guidelines for hiring younger workers

SAN FRANCISCO Four ex- employees of Hewlett Packard are suing for age discrimination, claiming they were purged unfairly as part of a major restructuring involving tens of thousands of layoffs.

The proposed class- action suit, filed in U. S. District Court in San Jose on Aug. 18, claims the tech giant “made it a priority to transform itself from an ‘ old’ company into a ‘ younger’ operation.”

“HP has hired a disproportionately large number of new employees under the age of 40 to replace employees aged 40 and older who were terminated,” the suit alleges.

The plaintiffs — Donna Forsyth, 62, of Washington; Sidney Staton, 54 of California; Arun Vatturi, 52, of California; and Dan Weiland, 63, of Texas — say they were laid off when HP instituted a Workplace Reduction Plan that allegedly targeted older workers after the computer services and printer maker announced 27,000 job cuts in 2012, the lawsuit said.

The Palo Alto, Calif., firm and the two companies that split from it in November, HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, have eliminated more than 80,000 jobs since 2012. HP Inc. and HPE are defendants in the suit. The 26page complaint claims that in 2013, HP’s human resources department issued written guidelines requiring 75% of outside hires be straight out of school or “early career” applicants.

“We are aware of the claims, deny them and plan to defend against them,” HP Inc. spokesman Tom Suiter said in a statement.

In Silicon Valley, where the workforces of major companies increasingly are under scrutiny for racial and gender diversity, ageism is a mounting concern. At least one recent lawsuit alleges the valley is biased toward younger workers in their 20s and 30s.

Cheryl Fillekes, 47, a systems engineer who interviewed with Google but was not hired, is part of an age- discrimination lawsuit against the company in federal court in San Jose. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which is investigating the complaint, declined to comment. Google also declined to comment.

“We are aware of the claims, deny them and plan to defend against them.” Tom Suiter, HP Inc. spokesman

PAUL SAKUMA, AP