Four former IT professionals at Houston-based Texas Children's Hospital filed a lawsuit against the hospital Jan. 24, alleging it fired them because of their ages, the SE Texas Record reports.
The discrimination lawsuit, filed by Andrew S. Golub of the law firm Dow Golub Remels & Gilbreath, alleges that Texas Children's Hospital required the four employees to become either Microsoft-certified solutions associates or Cisco-certified network associates when they worked as senior computer operations analysts at the hospital nearly four years ago.
In the lawsuit, the four former employees — Randy L. Rasmussen, Andre Gerard, Thomas Collier and Mark E. Millwee — said the certifications "were not easily or quickly obtainable."
Texas Children's Hospital fired each of the employees and replaced them with younger hires, according to the complainant's original petition. The replacement employees, who were in their 20s and 30s, allegedly did not have either of the two certifications and were not required to obtain them, according to court papers cited by the SE Texas Record.
The plaintiffs seek unspecified monetary damages and a jury trial in the lawsuit, filed in the Houston division of the Southern District of Texas.
A Texas Children's Hospital spokesperson told Becker's Hospital Review Jan. 25 that the hospital doesn't comment on employee-related matters, but confirmed it is "currently reviewing the allegations and determining the facts of the case."