On December 9, 2019, BCS fired Plaintiff and four other hospital executives, all of whom were over 40 years old. On that day they were told that their jobs had been “eliminated” as part of a company-wide reorganization. Soon afterword BCS did an about face and claimed that the jobs had not been eliminated. When pressed further, BCS again changed its story and claimed that the firings were based “part on performance.” None of these reasons was true. Just weeks before being fired, Plaintiff received a stellar written performance review.
The real reason why they were fired was because BCS believed that Plaintiff and the others were too old to adapt to the changes. Defendant described them as “silos” and “barriers to our agility.” The hospital system’s board of trustees were told they were fired in order to develop a “path to succession management or career development” for other “young thinkers.”
The Law Office of Sarah Swatosh and Frawley Law filed an age discrimination lawsuit against Blessing Corporate Services, Inc on August 30, 2021 in the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois (Case No. 3:21-cv-03189-SEM)