Catholic Charities of San Francisco has agreed to pay $30,000 to settle
a civil rights agency's suit on behalf of 71-year-old Gilbert Brigham who was
fired and
replaced by a worker half his age.
A federal judge approved the settlement of the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's lawsuit in the case of Gilbert Brigham, who had worked nearly five years for Catholic Charities' Senior Center when he was fired in June 2003, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.
The charity denied wrongdoing and said Brigham, a part-time employee, had been fired after turning down a full-time job that was then given to a co-worker. The federal agency said Brigham would have accepted full-time employment but that he had denied getting such an offer.
The settlement requires Catholic Charities, an agency of the San Francisco Catholic Archdiocese, to train its employees on preventing age discrimination and report all age-related complaints to the federal agency for the next two years.
Brigham "has dedicated a significant portion of his career to advocating for the aged," said the agency's San Francisco district director, Michael Baldonado. "It is ironic that he lost his job on account of his age."
Paul Cesari, a lawyer for Catholic Charities, said the organization has a long-standing policy of nondiscrimination and did nothing wrong in this case. The charity "reached an accord with a disgruntled former employee in an attempt to curb escalating legal expenses," he said.
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Catholic Charities to pay $30,000 in bias case (San Francisco Chronicle)
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