Section 11 Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967

• Library: Employment Discrimination 2008

Ordinarily, in states without laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of age, an individual must file a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) within 180 days after the alleged unlawful practice occurred. 29 U.S.C. § 626(d)(1). Because Missouri has adopted the Missouri Human Rights Act, Chapter 213, RSMo, however, an individual has up to 300 days to file a charge of discrimination with the EEOC or the Missouri Commission on Human Rights (MCHR). 29 U.S.C. §§ 626(d)(2) and 633(b). A civil suit can then be filed in any court of competent jurisdiction after the expiration of 60 days following the filing of the charge of discrimination. 29 U.S.C. §§ 626(d) and 633(b).

The time for filing a charge of discrimination is in the nature of a statute of limitations that is subject to equitable modification. Dring v. McDonnell Douglas Corp., 58 F.3d 1323, 1328 (8^th Cir. 1995). When a responsible person would not be expected to know the existence of a possible violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), 29 U.S.C. §§ 621 et seq., this excusable ignorance may provide the basis for proper invocation of the doctrine of equitable tolling so as to toll the limitations for filing the EEOC charge. Id. Likewise, a court might, in some cases, permit the tolling of the filing period as a matter of fairness, on the basis of equitable estoppel, to relieve an aggrieved employee who was actively misled or prevented by the employer from exercising the employee’s rights, such as...