Former workers sue PPG
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Five former employees of PPG Industries Inc. filed a class-action complaint yesterday alleging the company pressured them and other workers to retire or resign because of their age.
All five named plaintiffs, who were in their 50s or early 60s when they left PPG, alleged they lost salary, bonuses, vacation time, insurance and pension benefits because they were forced to leave the company before their normal retirement age.
Two of them, Linda Austin and Arthur Rupert, worked at PPG's coatings facility in Springdale. The others worked for PPG facilities elsewhere.
All five also filed age discrimination charges against PPG in 2006 with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
In the complaint filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh, the plaintiffs said the Downtown-based glass, coatings and chemicals company during the past 10 years has put in place aggressive workforce reductions that targeted older employees who had higher salaries and were close to retirement.
"Senior management of PPG instilled a corporate-wide mentality that the older employees were 'not pulling their weight,' " the complaint said.
Older employees often were dismissed without notice and without explanation, the complaint said. In some cases, PPG fabricated poor performance reviews of older employees they wanted to terminate, the complaint said.
The complaint also alleges the pattern of discrimination began when Raymond LeBoeuf, former chairman and chief executive officer, assumed those positions in 1997. He retired in 2005.
PPG spokesman Jack Maurer said the company "does not comment on matters of litigation outside of the courts."
Bruce Fox, attorney for the plaintiffs, said the class action is not related to a case last year in which a former PPG employee won a $1 million arbitration judgment. In that case, Kathleen Moyer of Hampton, a former engineer with PPG, alleged her job was terminated when she was 57 because of age and gender discrimination. PPG denied the charges.
First Published May 24, 2007 7:59 pm
