Raytheon Hit With Age Discrimination-Based Class Action Lawsuit

RTX Corporation, formerly Raytheon Technologies, has been hit with a class action lawsuit, claiming that it has discriminated against potential employees based on their age.

According to USA Today, the aerospace and defense giant received the lawsuit filing on Tuesday, June 11, which was instigated by a claim made by 67-year-old Mark Goldstein. Goldstein alleges that the company is discriminating on the basis of age by setting aside junior position jobs exclusively for recent college graduates and professionals with less than two years of experience.

Goldstein further claimed that he applied for more than seven positions at Raytheon from 2019 to 2023 and never got a callback for a single position. Goldstein had more than 40 years of experience in the field and was willing to relocate for the positions, yet claimed he never received a callback despite Raytheon's ongoing labor shortages. He then filed a claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2019, which determined that he was denied the positions "because of his age, and not because he did not meet the minimum qualifications required for the jobs.”

“Age discrimination has become normalized in the workplace in recent years in a way that other forms of discrimination has not,” said Peter Romer-Friedman, co-counsel on the case, in a statement to the outlet. “Whether it's remarks in the workplace or people talking about looking to hire in ageist ways, older people seem to be in a disadvantaged place right now.”

A recent survey conducted by AARP reveals that one in six people over the age of 50 claim they weren't hired for a job due to their age. That same survey showed that two-thirds of all workers believe they face workplace discrimination based on their age.

And it's this survey that motivated Bill Rivera, senior vice president of litigation for AARP, to join the class action lawsuit against Raytheon as co-counsel.

"There are a lot of wrongful assumptions about older people with respect to their knowledge and experience with technology, their ability to learn and adapt to new things," Rivera said to the outlet. “The old adage, ‘You can't teach an old dog new tricks,’ for example, reflects a lot of ideas about what older people are capable of.”

Class action lawsuits are also currently pending against the NFL and Verizon.