Watch Hill Bank Defeats Fired Teller’s Age Discrimination Suit

A former teller lost her claims of age discrimination against Watch Hill Bank, because she failed to show that the bank’s stated reason for firing her—insubordination—was actually a pretext for bias, the Sixth Circuit said Tuesday.

Melanie Pelcha’s supervisor instituted a new policy requiring written requests for any time out of the office. When Pelcha wanted to take a few hours off, she resisted this policy and initially told her supervisor that a written request wasn’t required under the employee handbook. Pelcha eventually submitted a written form, albeit after the deadline her supervisor put in place. The bank nevertheless fired ...