Catherwood LibraryILR School

The California Supreme Court ruled unanimously yesterday that a nineteen-year old state anti-discrimination law only protects workers over forty from age based discrimination in hiring, firing, and demotion, and not in working conditions and job benefits. In their decision the justices pointed out that while the law does prohibit discrimination against other groups in working conditions and job benefits, a prohibition against age discrimination in such areas is conspicuously absent. The decision leaves older workers in California protected only by the far less favorable federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and has prompted Democrats in the California State Assembly to introduce legislation that would extend full state age-discrimination protection to workers over forty.