CWA Files Lawsuit Against Companies for Excluding Older Workers from Job Ads

CWA has filed a class action lawsuit against T-Mobile US, Amazon.com, Inc., Cox Communications and Media Group, and hundreds of other large employers and employment agencies who allegedly engaged in the unlawful practice of excluding older workers from receiving job ads on Facebook for open positions at their companies. The lawsuit challenges how Facebook’s paid ad platform is being used to hide job ads and opportunities from older workers nationally.

Through an in-depth investigation, CWA discovered that hundreds of employers and employment agencies are illegally targeting their employment ads on Facebook to exclude older workers who fall outside specified age ranges (such as ages 18 to 40, or ages 22 to 45), purposely preventing these older workers from seeing the ads or pursuing job opportunities. The Complaint alleges that this practice constitutes a violation of federal, state, and local laws that bar age discrimination in employment advertising, recruiting, and hiring.

"Today, the primary way workers find out about job openings is online, including by getting job ads on Facebook. It's not right if people my age are deliberately screened out, and I don't even get the chance to hear about jobs that I know I have the skills to do," one of the plaintiffs, a former call center worker, said.

A year ago, an investigation by the news organization ProPublica found that Facebook's platform made it possible for African Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans to be excluded from receiving ads for various economic opportunities, including housing and employment ads.

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