A recent decision from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice has raised the issue of age discrimination. And while the allegations have not been proven – the case was a motion to dismiss – it does provide reminders about the problematic issue of ageism and its liability in the workplace.
Older employees bring a lot of value to companies, with their institutional knowledge and mentoring ability, says Margaret Waddell, partner at Waddell Phillips in Toronto and counsel for the plaintiff.
“My biggest takeaway from this is if they just treat [the employee] improperly to begin with — a 30-year employee should have been given a proper severance package that acknowledged his years of service — we wouldn’t be in this situation,” she says.
