DENVER — Seventeen former Major League Baseball scouts who say they have been discriminated towards due to their age sued the league, its groups and Commissioner Rob Manfred on Wednesday.
The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Denver. The former scouts allege violations of the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 together with legal guidelines in 11 states and New York City.
The scouts, starting from 55 to 71, allege they have been discriminated towards from 2020-22. They say MLB and the groups “have acted to prevent the reemployment of older scouts or refused the reemployment of older scouts.”
They additionally say an MLB provision that offsets scouts’ salaries after they signal with a brand new workforce – however are nonetheless being paid by a earlier workforce from which they’ve been fired – is discriminatory.
MLB stated in an announcement it seems “forward to refuting these claims in court,” but it surely doesn’t touch upon pending litigation.
The ex-scouts additionally allege MLB in 2015 ended an inventory of scouts eligible for employment, the choice to finish the MLB Scouting Bureau in 2018 was discriminatory and MLB used analytics and the coronavirus pandemic as pretexts to remove older scouts.
“This lawsuit is about age discrimination within a sport that supposedly values history, tradition and putting the best possible product on the field,” lawyer Mitchell C. Abeita of Kilgore & Kilgore stated in an announcement.
The plaintiffs are headed by former Chicago Cubs scout James S. Benedict, who was terminated in 2020. They search class-action certification.
The former scouts allege violations of legal guidelines in Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Utah.
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