By Tom Lotshaw
Law360 (September 3, 2024, 10:14 PM EDT) — A former vice president and chief human resources officer for The Elevance Health Companies Inc. claims it terminated his employment to hire a substantially younger person and tried to call it a retirement, according to an age discrimination suit filed in a Georgia federal court Tuesday.
According to the complaint, Troy Henagan said a supervisor told him in February that they wanted to “go in another direction” and “hire a younger person into [Henagan’s] role” after a routine review uncovered no performance issues and found Henagan was meeting expectations.
Henagan, who is 62 and had been with the company since June 2019, says he expressed surprise, at which point the supervisor called the decision a “win-win,” since people knew Henagan wanted to retire and that it would be good for him since Henagan would “probably want to go anyways,” according to the complaint.
The supervisor told Henagan the decision was not based on performance issues and informed him that his last day would be April 30, 2024. The company also began interviewing a candidate who was about 20 years younger than Henagan in February and later started working early April, according to Henagan.
Henagan says Elevance Health Companies rejected a proposal to keep working through the end of 2024 and then transition out of the business, saying that would be too long, though the company eventually pushed Henagan’s last day to May 30 and later, June 3.
Henagan says he objected to his supervisor’s request to announce his upcoming “retirement” to “send the right signal” since it was not his choice to end his employment, and also pushed back against a draft statement prepared by another HR employee that indicated he would be retiring.
Henagan says his employment was ultimately terminated on June 3 because of his age and not for any performance issues.
“In so doing, defendant violated the [Age Discrimination in Employment Act]. Any reason given for plaintiff’s termination is pretext for unlawful discrimination based on plaintiff’s age,” Henagan says in the complaint.
The lawsuit seeks damages for lost wages and benefits, as well as attorney fees and court costs.
Representatives for the parties could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.
Henagan is represented by V. Severin Roberts of Barrett & Farahany.
Counsel information for Elevance Health Companies could not immediately be determined.
The case is Troy Henegan v. The Elevance Health Companies Inc., case number not available, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
–Editing by Drashti Mehta.
