Better benefits for older workers upheld

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The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that employers can give older workers better benefits than younger workers without committing age discrimination.

The 6-3rulingresulted from a lawsuit by employees in their 40s at Falls Church defense contractor General Dynamics Corp. who were angered when their retirement health benefits were cut while workers at least 50 years old were allowed to keep them.

The younger workers argued the 1967 Age Discrimination in Employment Act prohibited all employment age bias, even when it favored older workers. The age-bias law protects workers older than 40 from discrimination in hiring, pay or work conditions.

The Supreme Court said the law protects older workers from preferential treatment for younger workers, but it does not protect the younger workers.

"In a world where younger is better, talk about discrimination because of age is naturally understood to refer to discrimination against the older. ... The enemy of 40 is 30, not 50," Justice David H. Souter, wrote for the majority.

About 70 million U.S. workers are 40 or older, roughly half the nation's work force.

The law "forbids discriminatory preference of the young over the old," JusticeSouter wrote in the decision. "The question in this case is whether it also prohibits favoring the old over the young. We hold it does not."

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas said the law, "clearly allows for suits brought by the relatively young when discriminated against in favor of the relatively old."