A Telford resident claims he was denied employment opportunities with a liquid petroleum products pipeline operator due to his age.
Robert J. Rishar Jr. filed a lawsuit Aug. 17 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Buckeye Partners LP, alleging violations of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.
According to the complaint, Rishar was 56 years old when he applied for an open position as a system pipeline controller that was being advertised on the defendant's website in March 2011. He also applied for a customer services position and terminal scheduler position.
Despite having more than 30 years of petroleum refinery and pipeline experience, and passing industrial aptitude and refinery simulation tests, the suit states that Rishar wasn't hired as a system pipeline controller or the even the other positions.
Rishar alleges, in the civil action, he was a victim of age discrimination as he was asked numerous age-based questions during his interview for the position in April 2011. He also contends he wasn't interviewed or considered for the other two positions he applied for and claims less-qualified individuals who were significantly younger than him ended up being hired for all three of the positions he had applied for.
Rishar seeks the wages and benefits that he would have received if he had been hired as a system pipeline controller, back and front pay, compensatory damages, punitive damages, reimbursement for financial losses he has endured as the result of the defendant's discriminatory hiring practices, attorney fees and costs, and other relief deemed appropriate by the court.
He is represented by attorney Jeffrey R. Elliott of Kozloff Stoudt in Wyomissing.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania case number: 5:15-cv-04664-EGS.