Forced Retirement

Patti · February 2004

My mom (age 80) worked for a company who has small offices all over the US. She always worked for the corporate office in the accounting department. About 6 months ago, she fell at work. No permanent or serious damage, just a scraped knee and a soar wrist. She never missed any work, except for the emergency room visit. Workers Comp would not pay because of her age, so the company paid for the emergency room visit and at that time they asked her to cut her hours to once a week.

About 4 times a year, all employees get together for a education meeting, to show what’s new, introduce new employees, award personal goals reached, etc. At this meeting they called my mom up to the podium and congratulated her on her retirement. It was presented as if my mom had asked to retire. Retirement was never discussed with my mom. My mom was blown away! My mom is very well liked and there were many hugs, kisses and presents that the other employees had chipped in to buy.

I work for the state and I could not force anyone to retire, nor do I think this was ethical. Can private business (about 80 employees) force someone to retire? She had her performance review about a month ago. She received an excellent rating and wonderful remarks about her performance.

Gillian3 · February 2004

To answer the question in your last paragraph - no, unless she was a top executive, in which case the rules are a bit different.

Nat · February 2004

Is there more to this story than you are telling? I have dealt with worker's comp for a long time but have never read, heard anything about them not paying because of someone's age. If they are an employee, they are an employee and covered under w/c. As to forcing her to retire, you can't force someone to retire in the private sector unless it is as Gillian said they are a top executive. If everything is as you have written, then she may have an age discrimination suit and/or a retaliation claim for filing a worker's comp claim. I would check it out with an attorney.

Hunter1 · February 2004

There are a couple of strange things about your post: As far as I know, there is no cut-off age for a work comp claim. The carrier or the company is just wrong on denial of her claim if it did happen at work. Decent of the company to pay the claim, though, if the carrier denied it for some reason.
Not that it makes much difference, but how many hours was your mother working before they asked her to cut back to once a week? And how many hours after that?
No, they can't force her to retire, but I'm betting that since she apparently didn't even protest about the announced retirement, that she probably isn't the kind of person to 'make a fuss' about the issue.

Pork · February 2004

PATTI: Whoa, there nellie, there is something stinking in the HOG HOUSE. I get visions of purely a part-time employee at this stage of your mothers employment situation. To ask someone to "cut their hours to once a week" tells me she is going to be working one day a week. The company has the right to do just that, I would not have handled the situation this way, but then we are not there.

W/C is required regardless of the employment status. The Emergency room would only deny service if the company did not vailidate the nature of the accident/injury to be treated. It sounds like maybe your mother had already been removed from the enrollment and was working on an unknown bases as "contract labor". Whereby, she may not be covered by W/C and that is the reason the company paid for her medical attention. If one of our contract labor people is hurt on our property then we are liable for that person's care and we would pay for the attention required.

You know if this was my mom, I think I would pursue some answers from the company personnel resource or even the company owner. something just "stinks here"!

PORK

Patti · February 2004

I agree something is wrong!

I do not know the status of my mom’s employment, except she has worked at the same place forever and she showed me her last performance review, which was exceptional. She is not an executive, she is an accounting clerk.

The people she works with are like extended family. I do not know what they are doing with her as far as workers comp. But she thinks it has something to do with this event.

My mom worked full time until about 5 years ago when my father became sick. She was off work for about 4 months until his death. After his death she went back to work because she is very close to everyone. A couple of years ago she cut back to 3 days a week until she was asked to come in only 1 day a week.

My mom was married to my father for 58 years and he always fixed what was wrong. She doesn’t want to upset anyone and she has replaced me with my father. So what do I do?

Pork · March 2004

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 03-01-04 AT 07:42AM (CST)[/font][br][br]PATTI: It most definately reads to me that your mother went from full time and over 32 hours a week to less than 32 hours a week and as a part-time employee which kept some of her benefits in place. Now that she is being asked to only work one day a week most of her benefits might be gone and she not know it. If I was you I would seek a consultation with the senior HR person for an educational opportunity to learn from the HR about your mother's working situation, which will help you to be able to communicate with your mother to explain more easily what is going on with her employment and benefits. I for one, as the Director of Human Resources would not hesitate to discuss, as much information as possible, with the daughter care taker of an elderly employee. To have someone on the family side who is interested might help the company to accomplish the long term management goals of this very dedicated employee. Cutting back to one day a week tells me that the accounting department will be using her for a weekly filing opportunity. We have a part-time person in our accounting department, who works 3 days a week and she does all of the filings. She is a great help and she is never in a hurry, thus she does not make filing mistakes. We can now go to the vendor file and always find the most recent transaction.

May you and mom have a Blessed day and Week!

PORK

Hunter1 · March 2004

Patti: You may not want to hear this, but here's my take on the situation: Your mother's employer has been good to her. They handled her 'retirement' very poorly, but: She worked there forever. They gave her four months off to take care of your father when he was ill (More time than would have been required under FMLA). They could have, potentially, dismissed her then at the age of 75. She cut back to 3 days a week, apparently of her own volition. They paid her medical bills when she was hurt at work (we won't, for the moment, get into why it wasn't handled as a work comp injury). They gave her excellent reviews. She was part of the "extended family".

I'm not saying that the employer didn't dig themselves a hole that she could probably make a claim from, but does she need the aggravation it would result in? Does she want to testify against her "extended family"? Does she want to make a statement about age discrimination? Does she have other evidence?

She could go back and try to get an answer to 'why', but she might not like the answer.

Unless my mother was in dire need of the money, I'd advise her to enjoy her retirement. IMHO

Rockie · March 2004

How bizarre! Workers Compensation does not have an age cut off. If your mom was injured on the job, then she would be covered.

As far as the retirement, this appears to be beyond belief that they would "retire" her without discussing with her.

I would certainly ask for a meeting with the HR person at the company and if they refuse to speak with you, that will tell your something. If this is the case, I would have an attorney contact them to get some answers to your questions.

At the very least, this is a very cold way to treat someone that has been with the company that long. Not many 80 year old would still want to be in the work force! Kudos to her!

Patti · March 2004

Thank you everyone who replied. You were all a lot of help.

I did make an appointment with the CEO and the HR manager from the place where my mom worked. They both sounded happy to talk with me. I will let you know how this turns out.

Thanks again

jampc · March 2004

I will be interested to see how this is resolved. Bizarre situation.

Cinderella · March 2004

Good for you for being an advocate for your mother. Patti - Please let us know how this turns out.

Forced Retirement

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