AARP At Odds With EEOC Over Retiree Medical Benefits

A federal district court judge has blocked efforts by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to begin enforcing a rule that would have allowed employers to differentiate benefits for Medicare-eligible retirees without running afoul of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA). On March 30, 2005, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (E.D. Pa.) granted summary judgment to the AARP in a case it had brought against EEOC earlier this year to keep the agency from officially adopting that agency’s ADEA Exemption for Retiree Health Benefits. In response to the AARP’s strong opposition, and in light of the 2004 presidential election, the EEOC held off taking further action on the proposed exemption last year.