The Chattanooga-based owner of a retirement facility in Columbus, Georgia, will pay $78,000 to a former receptionist who was dismissed two years ago at the age of 78 to settle charges of age discrimination.
The Covenant Woods Senior Living facility in Columbus, which is one of a half-dozen retirement facilities owned by the Chattanooga-based BrightSpace Senior Living, agreed to the payment to settle a discrimination lawsuit filed by the U.S.Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
The EEOC charged that the retirement center improperly terminated one of its employees, Shirley Noble, after a brief hospitalization and replaced her with a younger worker. Noble, who had worked at the facility for 14 years, was previously honored as a 2021 employee of the year, according to the EEOC lawsuit.
Noble expressed a desire to continue working for a few more years but was terminated by her manager in February 2022, according to EEOC.
“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,” Marcus Keegan, regional attorney for the EEOC’s Atlanta district office, said in a news release.