Human Resource Blog

ADEA in Montana

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Can we terminate older employees under the ADEA in Montana if they are not able to perform their jobs?

The Age Discrimination in Employment Act is a federal Act that is in place specifically to protect older workers from discrimination in the workplace by their employers. Workers need to be aged 40 or over in order to qualify for benefits under the ADEA. However, employees are only covered by the ADEA if they work for a qualifying company.

In order for a company to determine whether or not it can terminate an employee that is an older worker, the company needs to first determine whether or not it is covered by the ADEA. The following types of companies are covered by the ADEA:

• Employment agencies
• Local, state, and federal government agencies
• Employers that deal in a business affecting interstate commerce and trade and have more than 20 employees. However, those 20 employees need to have worked for the company for at least 20 weeks out of the preceding year in order to qualify for coverage

Also, employees need to be over the age of 40 in order to qualify for coverage.

When an employee and employer are covered under the ADEA, the employer is prohibited from discriminating against the employee based on the employee’s age. This discrimination may not occur when the employer hires employees or during any other decision-making process that affects personnel. For example, the employer would not be able to terminate an employee based solely on the age of the employee.

However, in the event that the employee is unable to perform job functions that are required by the job, the employer may be able to terminate the employee lawfully. In order to terminate the employee lawfully, the employer needs to first have a job description for the job that clearly states the requirements. In addition, the employer needs to prove that the employee is unable to perform functions of the job. The discrimination needs to occur only because of the inability of the employee to perform the functions of the job and not because of the age of the employee. CB