The disclosure is part of internal correspondence filed in the filing of a discrimination lawsuit against the tech giant.
Internal IBM emails reveal discrimination against the company’s older employees and plans to lay off this segment of the workforce, according to materials in a lawsuit filed against the US computer giant.
The correspondence proposes to do away with what are described as “dinobabies,” make them an ” extinct species ” and replace them with millennial workers, according to documents filed Friday as part of the discrimination lawsuit.
According to an email from an executive whose name has been withheld, the company has an ” old- fashioned ” workforce, a situation that needs to be changed, given that such employees “don’t understand social and engagement.” between brand and public) and ” they are not digital natives”.
The correspondence reflects “animosity toward older people from the highest ranks at IBM,” according to plaintiff attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan, known for representing workers in cases against Google, Amazon and Uber.
It is the latest update in litigation that has lasted since 2018, when a group of former employees sued IBM after the company laid off more than 20,000 workers over the age of 40 over the course of five years.
IBM spokesman Chris Mumma told Business Insider that the company “has never practiced systemic age discrimination,” but rather “separated employees because of changing business conditions , not because of their age.”
The spokesperson also noted that in 2020, the median age of IBM’s US workforce was 48, the same as a decade earlier.