An Allegheny County man claims he was discriminated against and eventually terminated from his job because of his age.
Neil Stevens filed a lawsuit Aug. 25 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania against Curtiss Wright Corp., alleging violations of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.
According to the complaint, Stevens originally began working as a purchasing agent for Benshaw Inc. in October 2001 and remained in that position when Benshaw was acquired by the defendant in 2008. The suit states despite Stevens having performed his job well throughout his employment with the defendant and having over a decade of prior buying experience, he was terminated in April 2013 with no reason given.
As indicated in the filing, Stevens contends he was terminated because of his age as he was treated differently than similarity situated younger employees. He was 57 years old at the time of his termination.
Regardless of the fact that he was never warned that his job performance was anything but good, Stevens claims he was placed on a performance improvement plan in January 2013. Stevens alleges, in the lawsuit, that the PIP was designed in a way that would make him fail as the goals of it were constantly being changed and he was being held to a much higher standard than others.
The suit says another older employee, a 62-year-old woman, was also placed on a PIP and terminated. Moreover, Stevens claims he was replaced by a young man who just graduated from college, however since the grad wasn't able to correctly perform the required job duties, the defendant even had to replace him with another younger male individual.
Stevens seeks reinstatement, lost wages and benefits, front pay, liquidated damages, compensation for emotional distress and other non-pecuniary losses, attorney fees and court costs, and other relief deemed appropriate by the court. He is represented by attorney Dennis M. Moskal of the Law Offices of Dennis M. Moskal LLC in Pittsburgh.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania case number: 2:15-cv-01111-LPL