Firm’s one person RIF leads to discrimination lawsuit

When companies have to resort to reductions in force (RIFs), those RIFs can vary from a few unlucky workers to a huge chunk of employees. But in this case, the “reduction” involved just one staffer.

Yes, you read that correctly. A company effectively instituted an RIF that consisted of just one single worker.

That worker was Robert “Bob” Dobkin, a 76-year-old workers who had been employed by U.S. Seal Manufacturers for more than 50 years.

According to Dobkin, he was called into a meeting, handed a severance package and escorted out of the building of a company he’d served for 51 years.

U.S. Seal Manufacturers called Dobkin’s release a “reduction in workforce.”

Only works 1/2 days

To make matters worse, the company had marked Dobkin’s 50th service anniversary by writing up a feature in the company newsletter that included the headline: “Is That Guy ‘Bob’ Still There?”

According to Dobkin, he regularly worked 12-hour days without any overtime while his co-workers joked about his workdays. As Dobkin told the Daily News: “They used to joke that I worked half days — from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m.”

It should come as no surprise that Dobkin has filed an age-bias lawsuit. After all, as Dobkin’s attorney says, “After 51 years of dedicated service to his employer, it is hard to imagine a more blatant example of age discrimination.”

So going back to the question Dobkin’s former-employer posed in the company newsletter: “Is That Guy ‘Bob’ Still There?”

Nope. After being escorted out the building, Bob sued his employer of 51 years — and he’s likely to take home a whole lot of money from that lawsuit.