Operators of a retirement community in Georgia must pay a 78-year-old former employee $78,000 as part of an age and disability lawsuit, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced this week.
In a lawsuit, the EEOC charged that Covenant Woods Senior Living, LLC and BrightSpace Senior Living, LLC, operators of the Covenant Woods retirement community in Columbus, Ga., fired receptionist Shirley Noble shortly after she had a brief hospitalization. Noble began working for the company in 2007 and she was fired in February 2022 – one month after being named an employee of the year.
At Covenant Woods, Noble handled clerical responsibilities such as screening phone calls and receiving mail. She also served as a greeter.
Throughout her time there, Noble’s supervisors repeatedly told her she should retire because of her age. One of those times was when she was on medical leave in 2017. Managers who terminated her did not follow company policy, said the suit.
“Although the receptionist expressed her desire to continue working, and despite having never previously raised substantial performance concerns to the receptionist, the general manager told the receptionist that Covenant Woods had lost confidence in her ability to work, citing her recent hospitalization,” said the EEOC in a press release. “The receptionist was fired the next day and replaced by substantially younger employees.”
That new employee was around 30 years younger than Noble, the suit said. In firing Noble, Covenant Woods managers offered her an unspecified role in an unspecified department or a volunteer position.
According to the commission, this violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
Per a court-approved two-year consent decree, the Covenant Woods operators are required to provide monetary relief to the victim as well as to revise ADEA and ADA policies, post a notice in the workplace informing employees of the settlement, and train all employees about the policies. Covenant Woods also agreed to provide the EEOC with periodic reports regarding future complaints
“Employers have a responsibility to evaluate an employee’s performance without regard to age, if the employee is 40 and over, and without regard to an actual or perceived disability,” said Marcus G. Keegan, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Atlanta District Office about the case.
CBS News reported that Covenant Woods does not admit to wrongdoing.
“We at Covenant Woods and BrightSpace Senior Living resolved this case due to the cost of litigating it," BrightSpace Chief Financial Officer Brian Hendricks said in a statement cited by the outlet. “We do not admit wrongdoing or discriminatory conduct as part of this resolution. Covenant Woods and BrightSpace Senior Living remain committed to compliance with all discrimination and labor and employment laws.”