Job Applicant Sues Aerospace Company Raytheon Over Alleged Age Discrimination

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A proposed class and collective action lawsuit claims RTX Corporation, formerly known as Raytheon Technologies Corporation, has routinely discriminated against job applicants age 40 and over in favor of younger workers.

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The 59-page lawsuit was filed by a 67-year-old Virginia resident who alleges Raytheon has refused to consider his numerous applications for lower-level positions at the aerospace company because of his age. The suit contends that the pattern of age discrimination in Raytheon’s application and hiring process disproportionately harms older workers and violates the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act and several state laws.

According to the case, Raytheon regularly posts job openings that show a “clear preference for younger workers” while deterring older individuals from applying. Per the complaint, the postings often use phrases such as “recent college graduate,” “new graduate,” “recent graduate” and other discriminatory language in a position’s title or job description.

In addition, the filing shares, Raytheon’s job advertisements often include eligibility requirements that expressly limit applicants to those who have earned a bachelor’s or graduate degree within a recent time frame or new graduates with no more than 12 or 24 months of relevant work experience.

As the lawsuit tells it, Raytheon also collects age-related information from those who apply via the company’s career website, which allows the defendant to systematically screen out the applications of older individuals.

By requiring applicants to input their month and year of graduation and work history, Raytheon is able to easily estimate an individual’s age and work experience and then “automatically reject[] applicants who do not meet the requirements for date of graduation and/or limited work experience,” the suit relays.

The case claims that Raytheon’s discriminatory practices significantly disadvantage older applicants and cannot be justified by any legitimate business reasons.

The plaintiff says he has approximately 40 years of experience across various industries and was qualified for every position at Raytheon for which he applied.

“The only ‘qualifications’ that he did not meet were those requiring him to be a recent college graduate or to have no more than 12 or 24 months of relevant work experience,” the complaint points out.

The lawsuit looks to represent anyone in the United States who, since October 11, 2018, applied for and was denied, or was deterred from applying for, a recent graduate position—that is, a U.S.-based non-internship position at Raytheon for which the basic qualifications included the requirement that the applicant currently attends or recently graduated from college or graduate school, or had less than 24 months of work experience as a college graduate or otherwise—for which they met the basic qualifications and who was age 40 or older at the time.

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