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HPE & HP Inc. hit with age discrimination lawsuit
The Hewlett-Packard sisters are in the doghouse, facing a class action lawsuit that accuses the two firms of discrimination against older employees back in the days when the two companies were one.
The lawsuit, which was filed by four plaintiffs in the U.S. Northern District Court in San Jose, California, accuses both Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Co. (HPE) and Hewlett-Packard Inc. (HP Inc.) of age discrimination and violations of California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act.
The complaint alleges that both companies, before and after their split, “unfairly targeted older employees when deciding which roles to cut during rounds of layoffs from 2012 to this year.”
“HP has employed various tactics to effectuate its publicly-stated goal of making itself younger,” the suit reads. “In order to get younger, HP intentionally discriminated against its older employees by targeting them for termination pursuant to the WFR [workforce reduction] Plans, and then systematically replacing them with younger employees.”
The ex-employees allege that although the age discrimination began when HP was a single entity, the practice has continued at both HPE and HP Inc. after the split was finalized.
“When Hewlett-Packard Company split into the two Defendants in November 2015, the 2012 WFR Plan carried through to both HP, Inc and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, which implemented similarly-named WFR Plans,” the suit alleges.
The suit also cites comments made by HPE CEO Meg Whitman, as well as HPE redundancy statistics, which the plaintiffs say proves that the company was targeting older employees for lay-offs in the hope of keeping its younger talent.
Not surprisingly, HPE moved quickly to deny the allegations. “Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a longstanding commitment to the principles of equal employment opportunity and age inclusion is no exception,” the company said in a press statement. “The decision to implement a workforce reduction is always difficult, but we are confident that our decisions were based on legitimate factors unrelated to age.”
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