General Mills Dodges Age Bias Class Action

Thirty-three former General Mills employees who signed release agreements in exchange for severance packages failed in their efforts to bring an age bias class action in court, as opposed to before an arbitrator (McLeod v. Gen. Mills, Inc., 2017 BL 122920, 8th Cir., No. 15-3540, 4/14/17).

The language of the agreement specifically released General Mills from all age bias claims and said that any disputes relating to the release would be resolved through individual arbitration. The employees believed they had been fired because of their ages. They tried to get a court to rule that the releases weren’t ...