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New Hampshire man to be awarded more than $134k in age discrimination lawsuit against Market Basket
“Market Basket’s hiring practices reflect that Market Basket has promoted younger employees into full-time positions and passed over older employees.”
A New Hampshire man was awarded more than $134,000 in lost wages and damages after a jury ruled in his favor in a federal case that claimed a Market Basket discriminated against him because of his age.
The jury found that DeMoulas Super Markets, Inc., the owners of the New England-based Market Basket supermarket chain, violated the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act and the New Hampshire Law Against Discrimination when they promoted younger employees instead of a long-time employee in his 50s.
Rodney Martinez is set to receive $80,000 in lost wages, compensatory damages, and enhanced compensatory damages. He was also awarded $54,749 in liquidated damages — the same amount determined to have been lost in wages.
Lawsuit: Martinez missed out on full-time benefits
Martinez was 62 when he filed a complaint in the United States District Court in Concord against DeMoulas Super Markets in December 2022. Martinez had worked as a product associate for a Market Basket in Manchester, N.H. since 2012, according to court documents.
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The original suit claims that throughout his time in the job, Martinez was a “hard-working” employee who never called out sick and only missed one day of work due to a work-related accident.
Martinez was 55 when he started working for the supermarket and about 59 when Market Basket repeatedly failed to promote him, court documents read.
Leading up to the failure to promote him, Martinez was regularly scheduled to work more than 45 hours a week — the equivalent of a full-time employee — but did not receive full-time benefits like paid time off, increased pay, and dental insurance.
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The initial court filing says Martinez expressed interest in a full-time position both at the time that he applied to the role and throughout his time working there.
“Martinez has never been told about open, full-time positions in his own department or in other departments or stores,” the complaint reads. “Martinez has asked his manager for promotion to full-time status several times.”
But in May 2019, a 27-year-old was promoted to a full-time role instead of Martinez. In December of that year, a 22-year-old was promoted, even though Martinez had expressed interest to his manager about working full time after the 27-year-old was fired.
In conversations about getting a promotion, Martinez’s manager reportedly asked him about his age and whether he would be willing to step down once he “gets too old,” according to documents.
The manager also told Martinez that there was a “push for young people to promote to managers” in the future.
Market Basket said Martinez did not express interest in being promoted
In a response to the claims, DeMoulas Super Markets said the conversation between the manager and Martinez never happened and that his performance declined when he “felt that someone else should not have received a promotion.”
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The company also claims Martinez did not express interest in working full-time.
In its decision in August 2022, the New Hampshire Human Rights Commission found that there was “probable cause” that discrimination had occurred.
During its investigation, the commission found that in 2018, the supermarket’s Manchester location promoted 15 employers to full-time, and that 14 of those were under 46 years old.
“Market Basket’s hiring practices reflect that Market Basket has promoted younger employees into full-time positions and passed over older employees,” Martinez’s original complaint says. “This disparate treatment is strong evidence of age discrimination.”
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