Eli Lilly agreed to pay $2.4 million as part of a settlement with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which had filed a lawsuit accusing the company of age discrimination in hiring sales representatives around the country over a recent four-year period.
The agreement was disclosed in a consent decree in which Lilly is prevented from rejecting applicants for primary care sales positions in its diabetes and obesity business units based on age. The arrangement will last for 30 months, according to the consent decree filed in a U.S. court in Indianapolis. The company must also update its hiring policies and provide further managerial training.
As noted previously, the EEOC contended that a Lilly human resources executive made a presentation in April 2017 that indicated the company’s national workforce was “skewed toward the older generations” and had 20% fewer millennials than the American workforce, overall, which was seen as a problem that needed to be addressed, according to the lawsuit.