Sprint Corp.: $57 million settlement in class action age discrimination lawsuit.

May 22 2007

Kansas City, MO: (May-21-07) A class action age discrimination lawsuit was filed against Sprint Corp., alleging that the company laid off 1,700 employees between October 2001 and March 2003. The Kansas City lawsuit, which attracted national attention because of its extensive computer-based document discovery, alleged Sprint had engaged in a pattern and practice of age discrimination. The employees sued after several mass layoffs, alleging that a computerized performance management system used in the job cuts improperly targeted employees older than 40. In a settlement reached, Sprint Corp. agreed to pay $57 million to resolve claims against it, maintaining from the outset that the company did not engage in any form of discrimination. The settlement calls for the laid-off employees to receive nearly $36 million. The plaintiffs' attorneys would get $19.4 million in legal fees, or about 35 percent of the total, and an additional $1.65 million would go toward paying the plaintiffs' costs and expenses. While the settlement works out to an average payout of about $20,000 per plaintiff, the 11 named plaintiffs in the action would get substantially more, about $155,000 each, or a total of $1.7 million, for assuming the risks of the litigation. [KANSAS CITY: DISCRIMINATION SETTLEMENT]