In a lawsuit filed in federal court, two midcareer workers allege drugmaker Eli Lilly discriminated against older job applicants in favor of hiring early career professionals and millennials instead. The litigation could become a nationwide class action lawsuit, which would open eligibility to many older applicants who were rejected in recent years.
According to the suit filed in a federal court in Indianapolis, newly appointed CEO David Ricks told Eli Lilly staffers in a company-wide conference call in April 2017 that he wanted workers who are millennials to be 40 percent of the company’s overall sales force by 2020. In some cases, the millennial hiring quota was later raised to 100 percent if lower thresholds were not being met, the lawsuit alleges.

“Eli Lilly believes younger applicants are better suited to be employed in a sales representative role,” the lawsuit says. “Because sales representative roles are primarily client-facing roles whereby sales representatives regularly interact with physicians who prescribe Eli Lilly products to their patients, Eli Lilly prefers that sales representatives to have a youthful appearance.”