HP Bit in Age Bias Case by CEO’s Remarks on Refreshing Workforce

Statements by CEO Meg Whitman describing efforts to refresh the workforce of Hewlett-Packard Co. and spinoffs HP Inc. and Hewlett Packard Enterprise Inc. with younger employees may be direct evidence of age discrimination, the Northern District of California ruled.

Donna Forsyth and five other former employees leading the proposed class action also adequately alleged the companies’ shedding of thousands of employees who were age 40 or over and replacing them with recent college graduates could be the unintended result of a facially neutral employment practice that had a disparate effect on age-protected workers, the court said Monday.

But the proposed ...