Opinion ID: 2994594
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Sue Shields denied them permission, and the

Text: district court adopted the magistrate judge’s ruling. After Steinmetz, Winkler, and nine other similarly-situated persons were terminated by Indiana Bell, they employed an attorney (Mark Waterfill, one of the attorneys in both the Adams and the Allard litigation) and negotiated a settlement. As part of this settlement, Indiana Bell paid them both the standard enhanced benefits package as well as an additional amount. In exchange, these eleven signed both the standard waiver and an additional waiver, or Settlement and General Release. Although the district court had ruled that the standard waivers signed by Steinmetz, Winkler, and the other plaintiffs were invalid under the OWBPA, the magistrate held that the additional waivers signed as part of the negotiated settlement were valid, even though the additional waiver, like the standard one, failed to mention the job titles of those who had been terminated. The magistrate judge ruled that the additional waivers were valid despite this deficiency because those who signed the additional waivers were in a substantially different position than the other plaintiffs had been when they signed the standard waiver: they had already been terminated, and they were represented by an attorney, who threatened litigation and negotiated the settlement. We agree with the magistrate judge (and the district court, which adopted the magistrate’s ruling) that the requirements of sec. 626(f)(1)(H) do not apply to the additional waivers. Section 626(f)(1)(H) applies if a waiver is requested in connection with an exit incentive or other employment termination program . . . . This language implies that the waivers subject to the requirements of subsection (H) must be requested while the early exit program is being implemented. The additional waivers signed by Steinmetz and Winkler were not signed in connection with Indiana Bell’s early retirement incentive program; instead, they were signed in connection with post-termination settlement negotiations. We therefore affirm the decision not to allow Steinmetz and Winkler to opt-in as plaintiffs in the Allard case. D.Miscellaneous Issues 1. Janney Deposition The Adams plaintiffs challenge the district court’s decision not to allow them to depose Richard Janney, a former ASI General Counsel and Vice President. Janney authored a letter to the editor published in the October 24, 1995, edition of the Chicago Tribune in which he expressed his opinion that stock options offered as part of executive compensation are in large part responsible for continuing lay-offs and low pay raises for workers. Ameritech and its subsidiaries were not mentioned in the letter. Three weeks later, and five months after the close of discovery, the Adams plaintiffs moved to reopen discovery so that they could depose Janney. The district court overruled the motion on January 26, 1996. Although the district court provided no reasons for its decision, discovery is an area over which the district courts have great authority and discretion and we will not disturb the district court’s resolution of a discovery dispute unless we find that the court abused its discretion. Corley v. Rosewood Care Ctr., Inc. of Peoria, 142 F.3d 1041, 1052 (7th Cir. 1998); Gile v. United Airlines, Inc., 95 F.3d 492, 495 (7th Cir. 1996). Given that Janney’s name and position were known to the plaintiffs well in advance of his letter and that their request to depose him was well after the close of discovery, we find no such abuse of discretion with respect to Janney. 2. Demotion Claims Five of the Allard plaintiffs filed claims that they had been constructively demoted. Although this is a strange label for a claim, what these five plaintiffs allege at bottom is that they were coerced into applying for and taking jobs with lower pay, benefits, and status because they were at risk of being terminated during the RIF; and because the RIF violated the ADEA, they allege, their decisions to take a demotion were also infected with discrimination. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Indiana Bell on these claims, reasoning first that the plaintiffs had failed to produce sufficient evidence to create a genuine issue of material fact that illegal age discrimination motivated the workforce resizing or any individual termination, and second that the plaintiffs’ decisions to apply for and accept lower-paying craft positions were voluntary. As both sides and the district court agree, the critical precedent on this issue is Henn v. National Geographic Society, 819 F.2d 824 (7th Cir. 1987). In Henn, this court ruled that the offer of an early retirement program could be discriminatory and violate the ADEA if those who took the early retirement offer did not have a true choice in the matter: [The plaintiffs] could prevail only by showing that [their employer] manipulated the options so that they were driven to early retirement not by its attractions but by the terror of the alternative. If the terms on which they would have remained at [their employer] were themselves violations of the ADEA, then taking the offer of early retirement was making the best of things, a form of minimization of damages. Suppose, for example, that one of the plaintiffs expected to earn $200,000 in his remaining time at [his employer], but [it] (in violation of the ADEA) had just cut his salary because of his age, so that he now could expect no more than $100,000. The employee would snap up an early retirement package worth $110,000 but might reject the same old package had he been allowed to work at his old wage. . . . The decision to reduce one’s injury from the employer’s violation of the ADEA would not prevent a suit seeking to recover the remainder of the loss. Id. at 829. See also Karlen v. City Colleges of Chicago, 837 F.2d 314, 317 (7th Cir. 1988) (Whether a worker takes early retirement because he fears he will be discriminated against on account of his age if he does not, or refuses to take early retirement and indeed is then discriminated against on account of his age, his rights under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act have been violated.). The Henn dilemma describes what the constructive demotion plaintiffs faced to a T. Their decisions to accept demotions to lower paying and lower status jobs were taken in the face of this possibly discriminatory action. These plaintiffs were not faced with a truly voluntary choice: because they were already on the at risk lists, they knew that they sat between the Scylla of a better job but with low security, and the Charybdis of a lesser job but with high security. If the plaintiffs succeed in demonstrating that the RIF was infected with and motivated by age discrimination, then they should be allowed to proceed with their claim that their decisions to accept demotions were the result of the same discrimination.