Security officer claims age discrimination cost him post at Philadelphia hospital

A private security officer has filed a federal lawsuit against his employer, claiming that his

supervisors discriminated against his age by removing him from a regular shift at St. Christopher's Children's Hospital.

Michael Wiggins, Philadelphia, says that his managers at U.S. Security Associates, violated the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act and is seeking an award of back pay and potential wages lost by the reduction of his hours, plus punitive damages.

According to the court documents, Wiggins worked as a security officer at St. Christopher's Children's Hospital before he lost his post in late July 2013. A few weeks before, he filed an internal complaint against his shift supervisor, claiming the supervisor had harassed Wiggins on multiple occasions. The complaint says that his supervisor had logged several bogus, disciplinary write-ups about Wiggins.

No action was taken regarding the internal complaint; however, 25 days later Wiggins had been removed from the account and replaced with three younger guards. The 44-year-old plaintiff alleges that he had been harassed because of his age and suspects similar practices occurs throughout the company.

Wiggins is represented by Kolman Ely, P.C.

The federal case ID number is 2:14-cv-02616-SD