Judge Refuses to Dismiss Fiat Chrysler Age Bias Class Action Lawsuit

A judge refuses to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed by current and former Fiat Chrysler employees who claim the company commits age discrimination in their employee performance reviews.

This follows an earlier unsuccessful bid by the company to have the age discrimination class action lawsuit dismissed.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Laurie J. Michelson rejected most of Fiat Chrysler’s arguments to have the employee age discrimination class action lawsuit thrown out.

She agreed with the plaintiff employees’ claim that the company’s policies could constitute a violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the Michigan’s Elliot-Larsen Civil Rights Act.

However, Judge Michelson did throw out one employees’ claim that age discrimination caused him to quit his job, agreeing with Fiat Chrysler’s argument that the employee’s poor performance review, even if it was based on age discrimination, does not constitute “intolerable working conditions.”

The employees allege that Fiat Chrysler conducts employee reviews by using a “forced curve” ranking method, which means that some employees must receive high scores and others must receive low scores, and their scores are dependent on others.

The employees also claim that employees over the age of 55 consistently receive lowers scores than their younger counterparts.

On this claim, the judge stated that “here, plaintiffs’ class claim is disparate impact — the FCA’s policy of forced ranking causes older employees to receive lower scores. And they plead a ‘company-wide procedure that could be charged with bias’ — the calibration process — as opposed to simply a generic policy of discretion.”

As a result of this determination, Judge Michelson decided to reject FCA’s argument that the employees had not sufficiently established that age was the common factor in their receipt of poor performance reviews.

The Fiat Chrysler age discrimination class action lawsuit was filed by Dan Carjanec, Rodrigo Bravo, Mark Modlin, and William Winfrey, who claimed that for years, their age caused them to receive poorer performance reviews than younger Fiat employees.

They say that they, and other older Fiat employees, were injured by Fiat’s system because their poor performance reviews negatively impacted their ability to get raises, promotions, and bonuses.

Allegedly, the four employees claim in some cases, an employee’s poor performance review, which was based unfairly on their age and not a legitimate concern over their performance, caused them to be fired.

They claim that during what Fiat calls a “calibration process,” employees are assigned a ranking from zero to nine, nine being the highest rank. Allegedly, if an employee receives a ranking below five, their employment can be terminated.

However, because the system is allegedly a “forced curve” some employees must receive low rankings, according to the employees. Those that receive low rankings are allegedly disproportionately age 55 and above.

The Fiat Chrysler class action says that during the “calibration process” an employee’s age and picture are “shown or made known” to reviewers.

The employees are represented by Shereef H. Akeel and Hasan Kaakarli of Akeel & Valentine PLC and by Michael L. Pitt, Megan A. Bonanni, Robert W. Palmer, Carey S. McGehee and Beth M. Rivers of Pitt McGehee Palmer & Rivers PC.

The Fiat Chrysler Age Discrimination Class Action Lawsuit is Dan Cerjanec, et al. v. FCA US LLC, Case No. 2:17-cv-10619, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.