The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has extracted an $85,000 settlement and other relief from Atchison Transportation Services, Inc., of South Carolina on charges that one of its managers terminated two motorcoach drivers who were 75 and 76 years old respectively. As with disability discrimination, federal law on age discrimination generally requires that termination be based only on cause-based individualized determinations of unfitness; in practice, an employer may be well advised to premise such determinations only on evidence that would stand up under legal scrutiny as objective, such as, for example, a driver’s loss of license or involvement in an accident. [EEOC press release, h/t Roger Clegg]
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Federal law requires airline pilots to retire at age 65. There are more bus accidents in the U.S. each year than plan crashes indicating a higher level of risks for bus drivers.
Why does the federal government REQUIRE age discrimination in airline pilots, but against it for the more dangerous activity of driving a bus?
‘Cause the FAA told EEOC to shove it and since more of our elected federal officials fly than take the bus the push comes to shove stuck.
Jason,
You don’t understand the governments perspective on safety issues.
One commercial airliner crash will kill more people than one bus crash.
The relative numbers of such instances is irrelevant.
MattS wrote, “One commercial airliner crash will kill more people than one bus crash.”
There are two pilots on an airplane and one driver on a bus. Pilots have become disables and even died during a flight without causing a crash.
(CNN) — The 161 passengers aboard United Flight 1603 must have known something was wrong when a crew member announced on the cabin loudspeaker if anyone aboard was a physician.
The pilot, Capt. Henry Skillern, 63, was suffering a heart attack.
http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/27/us/boise-airline-pilot-heart-attack/index.html
So, what happens when one of the buses has an accident like the one that almost killed Tracy Morgan?
Funny thing, one of the cases that brought us the horrific ADAAA was Sutton v. UAL – where Sutton wanted to be an airline pilot though legally blind. The disabled community was outraged with the reasoning behind the determination that UAL hadn’t violated the law.