Lets add some new expressions to our ever-growing lexicon of age-related discriminatory remarks.  How about the following: “as old as the woodworks” and “an old penny that keeps coming back.”  That’s what a fired employee claimed she was called repeatedly.

A federal court in Colorado found the other day that a 56-year-old retirement home nursing assistant may proceed to trial with her ADEA claim that she was fired because of her age, because “[g]iven the frequency and targeted nature of the alleged [age-related] remarks, they cannot be classified as ‘stray’ or ‘sporadic.’”    

The Court held that “Although there is no allegation of biased remarks made in the direct context of her termination, plaintiff does allege that remarks about her age were made on a continuous basis during the months immediately preceding her termination and that many of them pertained to her ability to perform her job or contained termination threats.”