Claiming Age Discrimination if Not Promoted and a Less Qualified Person Gets the Job
My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Michigan. I began working with this company nearly two years ago when the outfit was in its infancy. They do contract maintenance, repairs, and modifications for commercial airlines. During my employment, we were installing WIFI for Delta at their hub in Detroit. When I started, we were doing two different types of aircraft at a rate of one install/day. I was the only logistics specialist, in charge of incoming inspections, inventory, ordering parts and consumables, tooling, as well as several different conformity checks and their paperwork. I was dependable and reliable for the company in more ways then one. After the business began to grow, and we had more aircraft to work on, they hired an additional logistics specialist and a tooling guy. Overall, there was three people working in that department. I was by far the most experienced as far as the responsibilities expected of us (and the youngest). After work continued like this for several months, I was told that they were going to hire a supervisor for logistics. I thought I would atleast be considered for the position, as I had been there the longest and knew the operation in and out. To my surprise, they hired a gentleman that had worked with our director of maintenance at his previous job, and the two had been good friends for a number of years. I felt I was discriminated against because of my age. I couldn't think of any other reason why I wasn't considered for the lead position. I was always on time and went above and beyond my expectations since the day I started working there. After a few weeks of being under the new supervisor, it was clear that he had zero management experience and hardly any experience in aviation. Even after I trained him for days on end, he was still unable to perform his job correctly. I definitely feel like I was treated unfairly, and never had an opportunity for advancement or even as much as a raise. When I finally had enough and decided to bring this to the attention of the superiors above him, I was fired two days later. The reason for my termination was "disgruntled employee". I cannot make sense of any of this, and if I could get any advice, I would surely be grateful. Thanks in advance!
