Lured away from her job in Houston to take an executive position at Dell Inc., Jan Chapman persuaded her husband to quit his job, move with her to Austin, Texas, and buy a house at the height of the real estate bubble.Seven months later, the computer maker laid off Chapman, whose 25-year career in human resources had been filled with flattering performance evaluations.Chapman, 59, and three other top female managers have filed a class-action lawsuit against Dell, alleging age and sex discrimination in the company's termination of 8,000 employees over the last year.The suit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, is one of only a few so far emanating from the mass layoffs sweeping the country.
But labor and employment lawyers warn that a tidal wave of wrongful-termination suits is expected in the coming months as the jobless burn through their savings, run up debt and find few work prospects in the worst economic downturn in decades.Attorneys specializing in labor law say they haven't been this busy since the late 1980s, as strapped corporate clients seek their counsel on how to reduce staff without inviting litigation.
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Monday, January 5, 2009
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